


Lars & Organa (Book 2: Hope)

by HiNerdsItsCat (HiLarpItsCat)



Series: Lars & Organa [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Luke and Leia Switched, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-12 10:52:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13545843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiLarpItsCat/pseuds/HiNerdsItsCat
Summary: "Rebellions are built on hope."A retelling of the events of "Star Wars: A New Hope" if Luke and Leia had been switched at birth. (Book 2 of 4)





	1. Lost Time

“Come on, Sun Four,” Leia Skywalker said, impatiently. “We’re running out of time here.”

“I’m trying, okay?” Camie replied, a note of the same impatience in her own voice. With the vocoder, of course, it was harder to hear in Leia’s buzzing voice. “You might not realize this, but monitoring an Imperial feed is actually harder than it sounds.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Biggs said, a little wearily. “An actual  _ heist. _ ”

“It’s not… it’s not  _ exactly _ a heist,” Leia said. “A heist would imply that we kept the goods. All we’re doing is redistributing them.”

“We’re also considering taking a sitting Senator hostage,” Biggs reminded her. “Also, it’s not the ultimate fate of the stolen items that makes it a heist; it’s the fact that we’re planning on stealing them--”

“Redistributing!”

“So is this the thing we’re doing now?” he said. He didn’t sound angry, just tired. Which almost made it worse, in Leia’s opinion. 

“Not now, guys,” Camie said, almost automatically. One of the codes of Twin Suns was, if you were part of the original five, you didn’t argue with Leia over the general comm unless it was life-or-death. 

“We present a united front to the rest of the gang,” Leia had said what seemed like forever ago. “You want to air grievances? We do it when it’s just us, where we can call each other names and all that stuff. But not in front of the crew.”

But Biggs was doing a lot more of that lately, Leia noticed. There was a big fight on the horizon between the two of them, she knew. It would be fine eventually, but for now she had to take charge. 

“Later, Sun Two,” she said firmly. “For now, this is the job. We’ll talk future jobs afterwards.” She adjusted her macrobinoculars to astro range. “Assuming we get this right.”

She didn’t blame Biggs for being testy right now. He was currently juggling two different comm feeds inside the stormtrooper disguise he wore. As usual, he was their man on the inside, keeping them informed on the Imperial activities leading up to the arrival of their quarry. 

“Sun Four, any word on ETA? Any longer and we’re going to have to shift position before we attract Imperial attention,” she asked. 

“Especially you,” Tank pointed out. “You’re already getting stares from some of the cantina patrons.”

Leia sighed. “You’d think I was the only Ubese on the planet.” Her disguise had refined over the years into the persona of Boushh, an Ubese bounty hunter who had “retired” to Tatooine and held a deep grudge against the Hutts. Not only did the persona further distance her Twin Suns activities from Leia Lars, it had helped with recruiting non-humans to Twin Suns as well; a few years ago there was a slightly nasty “humans first” tendency among a group of new recruits that Leia and the others had spent a long time quashing. “Tatooine is for whoever wants to make a life here, as long as they don’t harm others. No matter who they are,” she had said darkly at the time. 

“I mean, you probably  _ are _ the only Ubese-resembling person in Mos Eisley,” Tank countered. “The Hutts would have driven off any of the others, just in case.”

That was a hell of a self-inflicted wound for Jabba’s operation, which had relied heavily on Ubese bounty hunters for much of their more sophisticated operations. Which left them even more vulnerable to Twin Suns. 

In the few years that the gang had been in operation, the Hutt cartels had had to almost completely abandon slave trafficking through Mos Eisley. She knew that some of the business had merely transferred to other areas of the planet, but soon enough Twin Suns would be able to start recruiting there too. 

There was currently a robust debate among the founding five about whether or not to turn their attention to the spice trade next, with Biggs and Camie arguing the hardest for it. Leia had pointed out that spice trading accounted for most of the non-farming jobs in the area, and that it would be a hard sell to the rest of the gang, many of whom were likely employed in the trade themselves. 

Maybe they could work on getting the trade out from under the control of the big cartels, she mused. A local guild of some sort, where the traders had more control? Maybe she should propose that to the other four and see if that would work as a compromise. Minimize the harm to the locals while keeping Jabba from buying more luxuries.

But that would have to wait until later. Now, they had another job to do. 

Assuming that the  _ Tantive IV _ actually showed up. 

This was going to be one of their most high-profile jobs: acquiring the goods from one of those do-gooder Alderaanian “mercy missions.” Half of the goods from the last trip had ended up lining the pockets of the Imperial forces, and most of the rest of it went into the black market. She was sure the people who ran it meant well, but they didn’t know enough about the way things were in Mos Eisley. Someone with local expertise would be better suited to make sure the donations went where they were supposed to go. 

So Twin Suns was generously offering to be that local expert. The mission folks just weren’t aware of that part yet. 

The actual acquisition was going to be the easy part; the hard part was if they weren’t able to make a clean getaway, because their backup plan was hostage taking… of someone Leia had never even  _ seen _ before. 

“We’ll never get the goods distributed if the Imps spend all their time tracking us. A hostage situation at least makes a good distraction,” Fixer had pointed out. He had officially retired from the gang as an active crew leader, but still helped with pre-operation strategy and tactics. An op gone bad last year had robbed him of his right leg-- and might have cost him his life if they hadn’t been so close to Mos Eisley that time. If they had lived on a Core World the prosthetic would have been better, but as it was he was out of commission for active duty.

“It’ll be a good distraction until the Imps storm the place and shoot us all,” Leia had retorted.

“It’s a risk, but unlikely for an Alderaanian Senator,” Fix replied. “They’d probably just sit on their behinds and make the royals pay out of the nose instead.” It was a good point, Leia had finally conceded. Alderaan was not exactly in the Empire’s good graces at the moment, especially with its new Senator criticizing the Imperials at every turn. 

So that was the backup plan; they’d emptied out two safehouses as possible fallback locations, with an out-of-use depot in Anchorhead to use as a primary distribution point. The Anchorhead locals knew not to talk or ask questions; Leia would make sure her hometown was paid well for it.

She was pretty sure her aunt and uncle had caught on to her involvement a few years ago, though she was also pretty sure that they hadn’t figured out just how high up in the gang’s hierarchy she actually was. But the results-- fairer prices for goods, banishment of the local Hutt lenders, and a generally well-behaved niece-- were too good to argue with. So they left her alone. 

“I’ve got something,” Camie said, perking up. Leia could feel the rest of the gang’s energy rising, either through the Force or through her own assumptions. “There it is; the  _ Tantive IV _ . By my estimates, it should be landing in Mos Eisley within twenty minutes.”

“Good,” Leia said. “Let’s do one more shift and then get into final positions. Sun Five, your team ready?”

“Hang on,” said Biggs. His voice was tight. “I’m not getting anything on the Imperial comms.”

“What do you mean?” Leia asked. “Sun Four, did the signal go out?” she asked Camie. Something might have gone wrong with the wiring when she put the extra channel in the helmet.

“No, the channel is still open,” Biggs said. “But everyone’s gone silent.”

“Stay alert, everyone,” Leia said. “Sun Five, can one of your guys do a quick recon on Biggs’ area?”

“Sure,” Tank said.

“Wait--” said Camie, and Leia’s stomach tightened with a growing sense of dread. Something was about to go terribly wrong with this op. “I’m picking up another ship just coming out of hyperspa--” She then swore, loudly.

Leia took a look up through her macrobinoculars, though she didn’t actually need them: a Star Destroyer was visible from space with the naked eye.

And it was firing on the  _ Tantive IV _ . 

“Oh  _ shit. _ ” Leia said.

* * *

Luke was sure he had lost days since being taken into Imperial custody. The question was: how many? If he hadn’t always shaved it might have been possible to tell from the stubble on his face. 

The  _ Profundity  _ had been destroyed, that much he knew. He didn’t know if any of the crew of the  _ Tantive _ had been captured, though many had been killed. Most of them were Rebels, yes, but many others died knowing nothing except that they were on a diplomatic mission of mercy to Tatooine. Many of them, including Captain Antilles, died not understanding why.

He knew he was still on the Star Destroyer that had intercepted his ship. The distinctive hum of so large a vessel had become familiar, the way a water fountain or wind chimes eventually faded into the background of one’s notice. But if he really paid attention, it was there. He had heard from Winter once (long ago, before she had left) that each Star Destroyer had a slightly different resonant frequency; he had wondered if that meant that it was possible to shatter one with the right sonic conditions, but Winter pointed out that, in a vacuum, it was impossible for sound to be transmitted.

“Like I said,” Luke had replied, “the  _ right _ sonic conditions. Maybe in the atmosphere?”

“If a Star Destroyer is in the atmosphere of a planet,” Winter retorted with rolled eyes, “you have much, much worse things to worry about.”

Well, now he finally had worse things to worry about. 

Like coming face to face with Darth Vader himself. 

Luke was still trying to process what had happened: the arrival of the Star Destroyer and the blaster fire and the stormtroopers swarming all over his ship.  _ His _ ship. That was, strangely enough, the thing that his mind kept coming back to. 

So he surprised even himself when he began playing the part of the petulant Prince being inconvenienced by a bureaucrat. 

“The Imperial Senate won’t stand for this,” he told Vader haughtily. “This interference in a diplomatic mission--”

“Don’t act so surprised, your Highness,” Vader replied; Luke could hear the sneer even through the mechanical wheeze. “You weren’t on any ‘mercy mission’ this time.”

His presence was overwhelming; Luke could barely see anything else in his field of vision. Vader really was the stuff of nightmares. 

That was the moment when Luke knew that the plans he had been given were the real thing. The most powerful Force user in the galaxy, second-in-command to the Emperor himself, had come after  _ him _ , a junior Senator from Alderaan, killed his crew and taken him prisoner. 

He remembered giving the plans to the droids, inserting the chip carefully into the astromech droid (the best one he’d ever had), with instructions to find Obi-Wan Kenobi and ask for his help. 

That was the whole reason why he was going to Tatooine in the first place. The missions of mercy were fantastic cover for Rebellion activities, but this one was going to be just for him: finding a hidden Jedi Knight and asking him to return and fight once more. Bail had given him Kenobi’s location, and Luke was secretly overjoyed at the possibility. He didn’t mention his relation to Kenobi; Luke figured that could wait until later. Just in case.

Only now, he was trapped and might not ever see anyone again, least of all his long-lost father. 

But the droids had gotten away; he had overheard that before they stunned him again and the world began to blur into a shadowy maze of blank rooms and long corridors and the unceasing hum of a Star Destroyer, while they asked him question after question about the Rebellion and the location of the plans and the Rebel base. 

He told them nothing. He had trained for this. He had practiced for this. 

Luke gave a small laugh, alone in his cell. What kind of life had he led that he had to  _ practice _ being interrogated?

He remembered the first time his father had injected him with ceritinol-- Luke was certain that this must be what being very slowly electrocuted felt like. 

“If you’re used to it,” Bail assured him while Luke clenched his jaw in agony, “you’ll know you can survive it.”

And although Luke did want to live, he knew that it wasn’t worth divulging his secrets for. 

He was ready to die for this, if it came down to it. 

The Imperials were certainly taking their time about it, though. He wondered why no one in the Senate had tried to intervene yet. 

Maybe Vader had reported that everyone on board the  _ Tantive _ had died. 

Maybe someone  _ had _ tried to intervene, but didn’t know where Luke was.

Maybe--and he had suspected that this was coming for some time now-- maybe there wasn’t a Senate anymore. Maybe the Emperor had finally dissolved it. The whole thing was little more than a sham at this point anyway; all of the Senate’s actual powers had been stripped away by this point. It was merely a place for posturing and self-importance, and there were days when he almost hated his father for encouraging him to take over his old Senate seat. 

So he had continued to spend time with the Foundation, doing more work for the benefit of the people of the Outer Rim. 

The foundation had suffered without Winter’s help, but it was mostly back on its feet after two years of her absence. He had found a good assistant and, with the help of a protocol droid, was able to get on with day-to-day tasks. But what he really missed about her was her friendship, the thing that he had truly lost… and he didn’t know what he had even done.

Why he continued to ruminate on this while in captivity was a mystery to him, but it at least gave him something to think about. 

Maybe she thought he was dead. 

No, he reassured himself. She would know better. She was the smartest person he knew; she would never be fooled by an Imperial ruse like that. 

All he could do for now is buy as much time as he could. The Imperials would only kill him if they thought they couldn’t get any more useful information out of him. It would be a delicate balance, but he would be able to walk it, he knew.

He had been trained for this. He could keep his secrets until the very end.


	2. Droids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: as this is the chapter where Vader interrogates Luke, there are some mild descriptions of violence.

It had been a race to the crash site, but the Jawas beat them to it. 

Camie had caught the sight of the escape pod ejected from the  _ Tantive IV. _ “No life forms in it,” she said. 

“Might still have something of value in it,” Leia pointed out. “Sun Two, let’s get our bikes going and check it out. If its contents end up being too heavy to transport, we’ll get in touch.”

Biggs was silent for much of the ride, despite having a local comm channel open with Leia. They could talk freely. No code names. No vocoder.

“Come on, I know you want to tell me off. We’ve got time; go for it.”

Biggs sighed heavily. “You don’t want to know.”

“Yes, I do. Go ahead, call me some names. Get mean.”

“I’m not angry,” he said quickly.

“I know. You’re tired.”

“I’m  _ worried _ . It’s like we’re growing for the sake of growing, doing bigger and bigger jobs just for the sake of doing them. I’m worried that you’re losing sight of why we started doing this in the first place.”

“And what do you think that is?”

“To  _ help people _ , not to keep you from being bored between Jedi tutoring sessions. If this keeps up, more people are going to get hurt.”

“Like Fix, you mean.”

“You said it, not me. But yeah.”

“I don’t think we could have prevented that op from going bad, Biggs.”

“We didn’t have to  _ do _ that op, Leia,” he countered.

“We had to free Windy.”

“Yeah, but it was  _ Imperials _ , Leia. We’re good at what we do, but we’re not  _ that _ good. Windy would have been fine.”

“If they questioned him he might have blown our cover.”

“You underestimate Windy. Just like you underestimate the rest of us. Look,” Biggs said, slowing his bike down a fraction, “keeping up with you is hard sometimes, but we don’t need Force powers to do it. We’re not helpless without you. You can ease up a little.”

“Ease up a little on what, exactly?”

“On the Darth Vader routine, frankly. The mask, the “I shall never be questioned” vibe over the comms, the strict discipline--”

“That stuff keeps us alive, Biggs.”

“Does it? I think we’re alive because we’re  _ good _ at what we do. Have a little faith in us.”

Leia was ready to retort but then she saw the sandcrawler tracks. 

“Damn it,” she murmured. “Jawas got here first.”

“On the plus side,” Biggs said, “we know that whatever they found is going to be showing up in the market the day after tomorrow.” It was true; the Jawas used very little of what they scavenged. 

“So we go back,” Leia said, “and wait and see.”

They still argued on the way back, but the worst of it had already passed. Things would be okay, Leia knew. 

Two days later, as scheduled, the Jawas’ market rolled into Anchorhead. Uncle Owen needed some new droids and finally had some spare credits to purchase them. Leia volunteered to go on his behalf. 

“Two, if possible,” he reminded her. 

“Make sure one of them speaks Bocce,” Aunt Beru added. 

“I know, I know,” Leia grumbled, and took the landspeeder. 

It wasn’t hard to figure out what the Jawas had found: two droids, in far too good condition to be easily scavenged elsewhere. Though they were old models and the astromech had some carbon scoring on it, they were in absurdly good condition. A little cleaning and they would be… moisture farm droids. She sighed. Kind of a waste, in her opinion. Maybe she could swap out a few parts for Camie; it wasn’t like a protocol droid needed much in the way of an extensive internal databank to run diagnostics on farm equipment. And the astromech… she could see lots of uses for the astromech when her aunt and uncle didn’t need it. 

Something about the buying process made her a little queasy; it was a little too much like the slave trade for her. But you couldn’t be all that sentimental about droids when you had a farm to run. 

The protocol droid was C-3P0, and she was honestly surprised that the Jawas didn’t let him go for more; he was a flashy-looking thing, with gold plating and a lightning-fast processor. He was quick to point out that the astromech droid she was after could be acquired for a bargain, and even provided a few comparison quotes for how much old models like that one were going for on the secondhand market. The Jawas bargained hard on that one; astromechs were much more versatile than protocol droids, but she got the price down in the end (and, she was proud to note, without using the Force). She still had to throw in a few credits of her own money on top of Uncle Owen’s contribution.

When she got them home, she told Uncle Owen that the droids could use a good cleaning before sending them out to the southern ridge. He merely nodded and went back to his own work. 

Leia brought them out to the maintenance shed, which was finally back to the old smell of oil and singed wiring it had long ago before the fire five years earlier. Cleaning off carbon scoring was tedious work, but it gave her a chance to question the droids. 

“You’re from off-world, aren’t you?” she asked the protocol droid. 

“Indeed we are,” Threepio said.

“Core World, I’m guessing?”

“Primarily Alderaan, actually,” the droid corrected. “But we did a good deal of traveling. We were the property of an Alderaanian foundation, headed by--”

“--by the planet’s Senator, right?” she finished. 

“Well, yes.”

“What’s that like?”

“I’m not sure how to answer that. I’m not very good at telling stories, you see, being mainly an interpreter.”

Leia frowned. “This R2 unit has more carbon scoring than I thought it would. Do you know where that came from?”

“Honestly, I’m amazed we’re in as good of a condition as we are,” Threepio said, with the droid equivalent of a sigh; his human relations programming was better than Leia had expected, “what with the Rebellion and all.”

“The Rebellion?” Leia said, putting down her pick. “I thought you said you were with that foundation.”

“Well, yes, but our main purpose was coordinating messages for the Rebels.”

“So the foundation was a  _ front? _ ”

“In a way.”

“So you’re just  _ telling _ me this? How do you know I’m not just going to turn you over to the Imps?”

“I am taking what you might call a ‘calculated risk’, Mistress Leia. Your negotiating tactics with those Jawas suggests that you have frequent contact with the local black market, an activity that many Imperials would likely frown on, or at least demand a bribe from what I can safely assume is a low-revenue-producing moisture farm. Furthermore, I can discern from here that you have at least two burns on your arms that resemble those caused by an Imperial-issue blaster, indicating that you have had trouble with the authorities before.”

Leia winced. She knew she should have kept her robe on. “Okay,” she said, wiping her hands on her pants, “so you’re with the Rebellion, and you’re basically right that I have no love for the Imps around here. So what are you here for?”

The Artoo unit beeped and whistled for a bit. Threepio, appearing to translate, said “We were sent to this planet to assist our owner in seeking out an Obi-Wan Kenobi, said to be a resident of these parts. Artoo is useful at gaining information from local databases, whereas my purpose would be to attempt contact, seeing as I speak more languages than Binary, which, alas, Artoo does not.”

“Kenobi?” Leia breathed in surprise. “What do you want with him?”

“It was our owner’s intention to request that he return to assist the Rebellion. He has been on a long-term mission on this planet for several years now, but it was always assumed that he would return eventually.”

“But then the Empire caught you.”

“Correct,” he replied. “So your conveyance to the nearest town with an Imperial database connection would be most helpful.”

“Actually…” Leia said, taking a calculated risk of her own. “I can take you to Kenobi.”

“Oh!” Threepio said, seeming a little surprised. Do droids feel surprise, Leia wondered. “Well, that would streamline matters nicely.”

* * *

He was somewhere different now. The familiar hum of the Star Destroyer had vanished, replaced with something that wasn’t quite silence, but wasn’t quite noise either. They must have drugged his food, to keep him disoriented. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but his stubble was a little longer. He wondered if they would shave it at some point, to prevent him from keeping track of time.

Something big was coming. Luke could feel a great vastness spreading out before him. He wanted to meditate, to draw some strength from the Force, but with Vader on board it was too risky. Luke was just Force-sensitive enough to get the occasional hunch; it wouldn’t help him in a fight against a full-trained Force-user like Vader. 

That said, he could still sense Vader coming; his presence was too vast in the Force to be completely shut out. 

Oh no. He recognized that droid accompanying him. 

An interrogator droid. Even Bail hadn’t used one of those on him.

Luke set his teeth and prepared himself for the injection that he knew was coming. It hurt far more than he had expected; they must have done something to the formula. He might end up with nerve damage before all of this was over. 

But he could survive this. Barely. 

The first needle was joined by several more. Soon, he was screaming. 

He knew how to distance himself from the pain, how to tune out the signals from his body and focus only on his mind. 

His mind was no longer alone, however. There was another presence, tickling at his mind like a mynock climbing on a ship’s hull, one delicate claw at a time. 

The room seemed to pitch and roll. 

It wasn’t the droid doing this. It wasn’t a hallucination. 

This was Vader. Inside his mind. 

Make your thoughts like water, Bail had said. Let the memories and knowledge sink down within it. Feel the surface tension. Water can be as hard as stone if you hit it hard enough.

The delicate fingers on his mind turned suddenly hard and sharp as a sliver of durasteel and plunged down towards his innermost thoughts. 

Towards, but not within. His mental barriers were holding, though he was in agony now surpassing the merely physical. 

There was no running from this, like his mind could run away from the pain of his body. He had only two choices: submit or fight. 

Luke pictured his feet standing firm on the surface of the water. 

The mental attack shifted, and made an attempt on another area of his mind. He lunged forward and grabbed the blade. 

His hands were nearly flayed, but they had repelled the attack. 

(Don’t think about what they’re doing to your real hands right now.)

They were merely hands of the mind. He saw them regenerate and ready themselves for the next assault. 

Another agonizing attack. Another success. Another regrowth.

He could withstand this.    


He could even survive it. 

He hoped.

* * *

“So let me get this straight,” Leia said once Ben had let them into his home, “you were part of the Rebellion, and instead of fighting you came out to the back end of the universe for almost twenty years?”

“Training you was more important,” Ben said. “Sometimes you can only preserve what is there to be preserved. Making sure that the Jedi tradition was passed on can still contribute to the ultimate defeat of the Empire.”

“You’re saying this like I’m about to join up with this Rebellion.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? You seem to have no trouble finding ways to fight them here on Tatooine.”

“That’s different. Here, I have my crew. Here, I know the terrain, the people, the things that need to happen.”

“Fighting for justice isn’t just a local issue, Leia.”

“It isn’t just a galactic issue either. I’m doing what I can here, on  _ my _ planet.”

“Stop lying, Leia,” Ben said in a sharp tone. “You’ll never be content picking off the occasional Imperial patrol. You want something more, something that will make an even bigger difference than what you’re doing now.”

“Why should I bother? Give me one good reason why I should give even the slightest bit of bantha poodoo what happens to the rest of the galaxy.”

“Because the man who killed your father is still alive. And the Emperor’s closest henchman.”

Leia gaped at him. “ _ Darth Vader _ killed my father?”

“Both your parents, in fact.”

“Why did you wait so long to tell me?”

“Because you would have done exactly what I can see you’re thinking about doing now: taking the first ship off-planet to confront him and getting yourself killed. He is one of the most powerful Force users alive, and only a Jedi could have a hope of defeating him.”

“Then why didn’t you do it?” Leia demanded.

“I  _ tried _ ,” Ben said, with a hint of desperation in his voice. “But  _ you _ \-- if a fully-trained Jedi, you could defeat him. That is your destiny, Leia. That is what I came here for.”

“I don’t… I don’t know if I can,” Leia said. “This is… I need to think about it.”

“We’re running out of time, Leia.”

“Just give me a second, okay!” Leia shouted at him. “I’m still trying to get a handle on all this.” Her comm suddenly crackled with a distant signal. 

“--eader! Come in, Sun Leader!” It was Camie.

“What is it, Sun Four?” Leia said. 

“Oh, thank goodness this got through-- listen, we’ve been made. Sun Five and his crew got ambushed at the safehouse and they knew his name! The rest of us are laying low, but you need to get out of here.”

“We’ve got to get Five--”

“No, we can’t,” Cami said, and Leia realized what had happened. “Tank and his guys were shot. He’s dead.”

“Then call up the crew,” Leia said, already packing up her things and heading for the door. “We’ll get those fuckers who killed them--”

“No! No, you were out of range and Sun Two made the call. We’re going deep underground. No contact until all this dies down. But they’re going to be looking for you, and if they know who you are they’re going to go after your family. So you need to go-- to another city or off-planet, even. Just for a month or so. Check in on this comm signal when you’re safe, and we’ll let you know when it’s safe to come back, okay?”

Leia grit her teeth to bite back a scream. “Okay. But we’ll deal with this when I get back, I swear.”

“Understood. Sun Four out.”

The comm clicked off, and Leia fought the urge to hurl it across the room. 

Ben said nothing, but after a time went to his trunk and retrieved a lightsaber.

Two lightsabers. 

“This is your father’s lightsaber,” he said, handing her the one that she had never seen before.

“Is this a bribe?” she asked, bitterly. 

He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. And now,” he said, turning to Artoo, “let us see if we can’t find out what to do next.” 

The droid’s projector lens suddenly flickered on, displaying a blue hologram about the height of Leia’s knees. The image was of a well-dressed young man in white, who would have looked poised if he wasn’t obviously agitated about something. 

“General Kenobi,” he began. “Years ago you served with my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you for your help. I would be there myself but--” Blaster fire sounded in the background, and he gave a quick look behind him before facing the camera again. “-- as you can see, our mission hit a slight snag. This droid is carrying data that is vital to the Rebellion. Make sure it gets to Alderaan. H--” More blaster fire, louder this time. His eyes went wide. “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”

The message completed and the projector went dark. 

Leia gave a confused frown. “Who the hell was  _ that _ ?”

 

* * *

Luke Organa couldn’t help but laugh. 

He was in a detention cell, probably in some remote part of the galaxy, probably facing execution, with no hope of rescue. 

But for now, he was alive and his secrets were safe.

And that was enough.


	3. Home

Almost losing Fixer was bad enough. She couldn’t even begin to wrap her head around losing Tank. 

Ben put a hand on her shoulder. “There will be time for mourning later. First, we should do as Camie suggested and find a way off-planet. We need to pack up and head to Mos Eisley to find transport. I…” he sighed, “I would advise against stopping at your aunt and uncle’s. The sooner we are gone, the better.”

Leia nodded. “Biggs will make sure they’re all right. He’ll find some way of explaining.” The numbness had finally set in, which was a relief. She felt sad but detached. It would do for now.

Just breathe. Think about it later. 

“Do you have any suggestions on what sort of transport we should acquire?” Ben asked. “Preferably one that is trustworthy and would not ask too many questions.”

Leia gave a frustrated exhale. “Yeah, I think I know a guy.”

* * *

“Ten thousand,” said Han. “In advance.”

“Are you serious?” Leia said incredulously. “This is literally just two people and two droids.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have any other business taking me there, do I? I have to recoup my losses somehow.”

“I should have gone to the Wookiee,” Leia snapped. 

“Yeah, well he’s not too keen on you lately, I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” he shot back. 

“Are you sure you aren’t talking about yourself, nerfherder?”

“Let’s just calm down here,” Ben said. He looked at Han. “Two thousand now, plus fifteen when we reach Alderaan.”

Han dragged his eyes away from Leia’s angry face and stared at Ben in astonishment. “Are you serious? Seventeen thousand total?”

Ben turned to Leia, “I assume you have enough cash on hand for the deposit?”

“Sure, whatever,” Leia grumbled, pulling the sum out of her bag. Luckily, she was still fairly flush from the job before their attempt on the  _ Tantive _ . Ben nodded and went to find the droids.

She was about to slap the credits on the table when Han took her hand. “Hey,” he said with a look of concern, “are you in some kind of trouble?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” she said, pulling her hand away and letting the credits fall to the tabletop.

“Who was that guy? Your father or something?”

“I’m sorry, when did ‘no questions asked’ become ‘ask me all the questions’?” 

“I heard there was a shootout between some stormtroopers and a local gang. Some people turned up dead.” He looked at her closely. “Anyone you know?”

She couldn’t stop her lip from trembling. Stupid, stupid, she told herself. Just breathe and make it all go away. 

“It was, wasn’t it?”

She nodded, not meeting his eyes. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, softly.

“I’ve lost crew members before,” she said bitterly. “You’d think it would have made this easier.”

Han shook his head. “It never gets easier,” he said.

“And how would you know?”

There was a long silence. Then Han said, “Docking bay ninety-four, one hour. It’ll take me some time to get the  _ Falcon _ ready to go.”

“Hang on, you got the  _ Millennium Falcon _ ?”

He couldn’t keep his usual cocky smile from slipping through. “Swindled it away from Lando over a year ago.”

“Congratulations. I hadn’t heard.”

“Well, you seemed to be pretty set on avoiding most things that would have our paths cross.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and found that she mostly meant it.

“Yeah, well… can’t avoid each other now, can we?” he said, as they stood and left the cantina. 

“Guess not,” she said.

“Too bad I never got that chance to show you around the  _ Bria _ . I think you’d have liked it.” He gave her a wink and headed toward the docking bays.

_ Turn left and cross the street. _ Ben’s voice. 

Ben’s voice  _ inside her head _ . 

She gave an involuntary yelp, which fortunately didn’t attract much attention in the noisy Mos Eisley street. 

“What exactly is going on here?” she muttered under her breath.

_ I am sorry, but we seem to be attracting some Imperial attention. _

“Did you find the droids?”

_ Yes, which is how I also found their pursuers. Now turn right at the second alley you pass. _

“So Jedi can communicate over distances, huh?”

_ Yes, though it’s a bit of a strain so try to hurry if you can. _

Leia entered the alley to find a hooded Kubaz lying approximately four feet away from one of its arms. Ben was still holding his lightsaber. 

“He’ll be alright,” he reassured her. “Remember, the blade cauterizes as it cuts. And Kubaz have remarkable healing abilities.”

“Your first day in the big city and you cut someone’s  _ arm _ off?”

“We should move,” Ben said, clipping his lightsaber onto his belt. “It won’t be long before someone comes looking for him.”

“I guess we could head to the docking bay now,” Leia said, shrugging. The droids were standing behind Ben, looking remarkably nonchalant. Though she supposed that was how protocol droids were supposed to look, anyway.

They had gone only about two blocks before a pair of stormtroopers stopped them. 

“How long have you had these droids?” one demanded. The other was examining Threepio and Artoo closely. 

“Over a year now,” Leia said smoothly. “They’re for sale, if you want them.” 

The troopers exchanged glances. “Let me see your identification.”

Leia sighed and was about to pass hers over when she caught a flash of Ben through the Force. 

“You don’t need to see her identification,” he reassured them.

“We don’t need to,” one of the troopers agreed. 

“These are not the droids you’re looking for,” Ben continued.

“Absolutely not,” the other trooper, who had been examining Threepio, said. “Not the same droids at  _ all _ .”

“So can we go about our business?” Leia asked tentatively.

The first trooper nodded. “Move along,” he said with a wave of his hand.

“Look who’s suddenly not above doing mind tricks,” Leia snarked as they continued down the street.

“Think of this not as hypocrisy,” Ben said, “but as a sign of how important this task is. We need to get to Alderaan with these droids as fast as we can, and do everything in our power to keep them from falling into Imperial hands.”

“Fine, but I’m just going to say that your subtlety could have been better.”

“In what way?” he asked, confused.

“You literally waved your hand at them.”

“I’m still a bit rusty at the technique,” Ben said, a little offended. “I needed focus. Keep that in mind.”

“So your real name is Obi-Wan, huh?”

“You can understand why I’ve preferred to go by Ben.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

They reached the docking bay without further incident.

Which was exactly when the next incident started: a squad of stormtroopers approached the ship from the opposite direction they had come. 

“Get the droids on the ship!” Ben told her, and placed himself at the entrance of the docking bay. 

“Ben, there are a dozen troopers coming!”

“It will be fine. Now hurry.” He drew his lightsaber but did not ignite it.

“They’re  _ droids _ , Ben. They know how to  _ walk _ . Now let me help.” She unclipped her own lightsaber and managed to ignite it just as the troopers opened fire. 

Through the distraction of combat, Leia was able to spare the occasional glance at Ben, who was blocking blaster bolts almost a little boredly. He even deflected several of the ricocheted bolts that Leia had accidentally sent his way.

It was only then that Leia remembered: she had only seen Ben during what could be vaguely considered peacetime. Mind tricks, severed limbs, the emotional detachment during combat: was this what happened when a Jedi went to war?

No wonder the Empire had viewed them as dangerous.

Ben began to back away, towards the ship. “Another squad is on its way,” he said urgently. “Onto the ship, now.”

* * *

“Of  _ course _ you have smuggling compartments built in,” Leia said with a sigh.

“All over the ship,” Han said, pleased with himself. “It’s not much, of course, but we’re making a good home out of it, right Chewie?”

Chewbacca had been a little frosty ever since Leia had come on board; either he was irritated with her for bringing so much Imperial attention on the  _ Falcon _ , which instigated their half-prepped flight from Tatooine, or Han hadn’t been projecting when he said that the Wookiee was upset about her breaking it off two years ago. 

When she asked Han about it, he shrugged. “Wookiees are long-lived,” he said. “They can hold a grudge.”

“And what about you?” she asked. 

“Well, I’m not as long-lived as Wookiees, but I also don’t plan on dying any time soon,” he said. 

“I meant: do  _ you _ hold a grudge?”

“I’m admittedly trying to be cautious here,” he said, “but no grudge. Your first trip off-world and I get to be your ride?  I’m just flattered you thought of me.”

“You were the obvious first choice, trust me.”

“I don’t think I quite trust you  _ yet _ ,” Han said. 

“That’s fair,” Leia sighed. “So, have you ever been to Alderaan before?”

“No, too rich for me.”

“Well, want to hang out there for the better part of a month?”

“With you?”

“Sure,” she said with a smile. “I’d rather spend the time with you than by myself.”

“What about your… whoever that wizard is?”

“That’s Ben. He’s my… tutor, I guess?” she said with a shrug. “I don’t know what he’ll be up to. He needed to get to Alderaan for a… something important, and I had to get off-world for awhile. So it made sense that I’d go with him, but I don’t know what to do once we get there.”

“I saw those lightsabers, you know.”

“So did half of Mos Eisley.”

“So you’re some kind of wizard too, huh?”

“Jedi apprentice, if you please,” she said with mock haughtiness. 

“Sure, sure, your worship,” he said with a laugh. “I mean, I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff over the years, but I’ve never even  _ heard _ of a Jedi outside of old spacer stories.”

“Well, now you’ve met two of them,” she said. “So how long till we get there?”

“A few more hours. We’re about halfway there. Want to play a few hands of sabacc?”

“Sure,” she said. She wondered what they would use for betting, and opened her mouth to say so--

\--just in time to scream.

* * *

“Welcome, your Highness,” Grand Moff Tarkin said as Luke was dragged onto the bridge of what he now realized was the Death Star itself. The bridge had an odd smell, like ozone mixed with sweat.

Vader was there as well. Luke was barely able to look at him without shuddering. He had survived, but the effects of the interrogation had bitten down deep inside of him. Wearily, he kept his mental guards up.

“I understand that you have been unwilling to divulge the location of your Rebel base,” Tarkin continued.

“Oh? You were asking about that? I hadn’t noticed,” Luke said dryly. They had actually gone so far as to repair the nerve damage they had caused, so either they were about to let him go or they had more torturous methods waiting for him.

“We have decided on an… alternative method of persuasion, your Highness,” Tarkin said.

Luke narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but said nothing. In the years since first seeing Tarkin at the Rhoonis’ gala, Luke had encountered him several more times, each time more unpleasant than the last. He was paranoid, self-absorbed, and had a outlook on life that seemed to rely on a complete lack of opposition. 

Tarkin also had a personal obsession with superweapons. 

And the whole time, Luke had been imprisoned on Tarkin’s new favorite toy. He didn’t know what the station actually did, but given its name it likely wasn’t anything good. 

A cold twist of dread crept through Luke’s stomach, unlike any he had ever experienced before. It was only then that he recognized the green planet visible through the view screen. 

Tarkin began his threat. “Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station’s destructive power… on your home planet of Alderaan.”

“No!” Luke cried. “This is a peaceful planet, a law-abiding member of the Imperial worlds--”

“You would prefer another target?” Tarkin asked, a smile growing on his face. “A military target? Then name the system.”

Luke had never hated anyone as much as he hated Tarkin in that moment. Even Vader, who had spent hours torturing him mentally and physically, had only threatened him, not others. 

But now, looking down at his planet, he was faced with terrible stakes. Everyone he had ever known: his mother, his father, his colleagues.

Winter. She must be down there too, somewhere.

Something vast and terrible began to build within the deep water of Luke’s mind. He took a deep breath and stilled it. 

He just had to buy some more time. 

“Dantooine,” he murmured, defeated. “They’re on Dantooine.”

“There, see?” Tarkin said triumphantly to Darth Vader. “I told you he could be reasonable.” He turned to one of his admirals. “Admiral Motti, continue with the operation. You may fire when ready.”

“What?” Luke cried out. 

Tarkin gave him a pitying smile. “You’re far too trusting. Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don’t worry; we will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough.”

The walls seems to fold in on Luke. The deck pitched and rolled. This was all in his head, he knew. Just memories from the interrogation. He heard, distantly, a flurry of orders among the bridge crew. 

He shouldn’t be here.    


He couldn’t be here. 

His entire field of vision went white and red.

Everyone. 

Everyone he had ever known. 

“ _ No! _ ” Luke screamed. 

Everyone he had ever loved. 

Gone. 

Luke kept screaming as everything he had been trying to keep down erupted from him all at once.

Everything went black for a moment, and then an electric blue. 

He opened his eyes to find he was the only one on the bridge still standing. 

Even Vader seemed to have been flung against the nearest bulkhead. 

Luke knelt down next to one of his escorts and grabbed his blaster. As he stood, he saw Vader beginning to stir.

His mechanical breathing hitched. “What… are you?” Vader asked.

Luke turned and ran from the bridge.


	4. Disguise

Gone.

All of it gone. 

She could see them. An endless parade of the dead passed before her eyes.

Lovers, basking in the warm glow of each others’ presence. Children, calling to their guardians for attention and love. Enemies, even, feeling a fierce joy at another small victory. Criminals. Leaders. The young. The old. The powerful. The poor. 

All of them vaporized in a single instant. It felt like the Force was being torn apart. 

Leia’s screams subsided, replaced by an overwhelming wave of pain and loss. 

Gone. 

Everyone she had ever known.

Wait. That wasn’t her thought. Whose thought was it?

The waves of pain continued. This was like learning about Tank, multiplied into billions of singular crystallized moments, one after the other. 

There was no balance here, only a gaping wound in the Force.

She was crying; she could hear her own heaving sobs of grief for a dead world that she would never know. Faces that would never be seen again. Lives halted before their time. 

She could hear Ben’s voice, faintly: “--disturbance in the Force.”

This was a  _ disturbance _ ?

“I fear something terrible has happened,” he went on.

“Is she going to be alright?” Han said. She could feel a distant pressure on her fingers, which must have been his hand holding hers. Something alive. She clung to that sensation like it was a small shelter in the middle of a sandstorm. 

“She has been very open to the Force recently,” Ben answered, “but she hasn’t learned how to temper that connection when needed. The reverberations hit her with tremendous force.”

“Tempering that connection…” Han murmured. “Is that what you’re doing?”

She heard Ben draw in a ragged breath. “I’m trying.” She felt him draw nearer to her. “Leia… Leia, you need to come back to yourself.”

“I can’t,” she heard herself rasping. Her throat had been scraped raw by her screams. “It’s too much.”

“Just breathe,” he told her. “Let it pass by. Close the door in your mind.”

It was like pushing sandstone up a steep dune, but she finally managed to separate herself from the horrible void and close her mind off. 

Chewbacca gave a growl from the direction of the cockpit; Leia could normally piece together his meaning, but her thoughts were still too fuzzy to parse Shyriiwook at the moment. 

“We’re coming out of hyperspace in a moment,” Han said. He gave her hand a squeeze. “You rest for now. We’ll be landing soon.” He headed for the cockpit. 

A moment later, he heard both Han and Chewie swearing. 

“Oh my,” said Threepio. “What has happened?”

Leia stood and stumbled past the droid to follow Ben, who was hurrying to the cockpit. Standing behind Han and Chewie’s seats, she saw a vast field of asteroids before them. 

“Have we come out in the right spot?” asked Threepio, coming up behind them. 

“We’re at the right place,” Han said, trying to keep the  _ Falcon  _ from colliding with any of the debris, “but no Alderaan.”

“How?” Chewbacca growled.

“Destroyed,” Ben said, barely holding in his distress, “by the Empire.”

Chewbacca gave a yip that Leia was pretty sure meant “incoming.”

“What is it?” Leia asked. 

“TIE fighters,” Han said. He turned to Ben, briefly. “Well, you were right about the Empire. Have either of you ever shot a gun turret before?”

“I can do it,” Leia said.

“You sure?” Han asked, concerned. “You were pretty rough a minute ago.” 

“Just point me in the right direction,” she said. “I’ll be fine.” She was admittedly still a little woozy, and the vastness of the graveyard they were flying through was nearly enough to break down her mental barriers. 

Think about that later. For now, move.

She stumbled to one of the turrets. It was a different setup than the T-16, with the aiming mechanism controlled by the position of the seat, but after a few seconds of experimenting she was able to move it in the directions she needed it to go. 

She clipped on the headset that was hanging near the seat. “Standing by,” she said. Sitting felt better than standing. Just breathe, she reminded herself. 

Han’s piloting was good for avoiding asteroids, but made for difficult work hitting anything with the lasers. Further hampering her efforts was the fact that she couldn’t open herself up to the Force in order to help her aim. All she could do for the moment was provide enough cover fire to keep the TIE fighter at a distance until they could get out of the asteroid field (stop thinking about the fact that it was a planet, she told herself desperately) and figure out what to do next.

At last, the TIE fighter turned and flew away from them. It was more maneuverable than a freighter like the  _ Falcon _ , so it was able to gain an ever-increasing distance from them as it headed to Alderaan’s moon, which had somehow escaped the damage unharmed. 

“That moon must be where the Imperials were stationed when they launched that attack,” she said. 

“It’s out of range of the debris,” Han said, “I say we follow it and then jump to hyperspace once we’re clear. If they’re on that moon, it will take some time for them to scramble more fighters.” There was a pause, and then she heard Han say, presumably to Ben, “Excuse me?”

“What is it?” Leia asked. 

“He’s saying that it’s not a moon.”

“Well, what else could be that size?”

“He’s saying that it’s a space station.”

“I’m coming back to the cockpit,” Leia said, ripping off her headset and heading back towards the front of the ship. 

When she got there, Han and Chewie were in the middle of an argument. 

“I’m trying!” Han shouted at the Wookiee. 

“Try harder!” Chewie roared.

“That’s now how it works and you know it!”

Chewie must have replied with something referring to hyperspace because Han then said “It’s not working… we must be caught in an interdictor field.”

Leia drew in a sharp breath. Interdictor fields were one of the Empire’s more potent tools: they projected a field that prevented ships from jumping to hyperspace, leaving them easy pickings for any turbolasers or small fighters that could be brought to bear against them. 

She had never heard of a field with this extensive of a range before.

The cockpit’s sensors emitted a series of alarms. Amidst the slew of Wookiee curses, Han was repeating “I know, I know.”

“What’s happening now?” Leia asked. 

“We’re being pulled in,” Han said grimly.

Their approach to the moon-- no, station, she reminded herself-- was painfully slow. Nearly everyone on the ship had increasingly frayed nerves as they waited and watched. 

“Are they just pulling in all the ships entering the system?” Leia wondered. 

“Probably,” answered Han, “but I’m not sure why.”

“If I might be permitted some speculation,” Threepio interjected, “it is likely that the Empire does not wish for news of the planet’s destruction to be circulated by anyone but themselves.”

Han’s face darkened. “Public relations. You’re kidding me.” 

“I am not programmed to make jokes, sir.”

“I know, I know.”

“Are we sure that this station… thing… is what destroyed the planet?” Leia asked. She already knew the answer but was still hoping that she was wrong.

“This is probably as good of a time as any to divulge the nature of the data that we were directed to convey to the Rebellion,” Threepio said. He gestured to Artoo to approach the cockpit. The astromech droid’s projector activated, showing a schematic of the same station that was now filling up the cockpit windows. 

“This are the plans for this very station, known as the Death Star.”

“Great name,” Leia snarked. “Was ‘Doom Ball’ already taken?”

“I cannot answer that question, Mistress Leia.”

“Sorry. Go on, Threepio.”

“Thank you,” the protocol droid said primly. “As you can see, while these plans will have great value to the Rebellion once it receives them, as they will hopefully reveal a weakness in the station’s design… it may also have some value to us at this particular moment.”

“Like where the tractor beam controls are located,” Han said, understanding.

“Precisely, sir.”

“And the interdictor field controls,” Leia added.

“Indeed,” Threepio replied. “But there is currently a snag in this plan, in that it will be difficult to access these areas once we are taken prisoner.”

“Well  _ that _ ,” Han said. “That, I can handle.”

* * *

“A hidden exit via the smuggling compartments,” Ben said, impressed. “Very clever.”

“Just in case I need to dump my goods before getting caught with them,” Han said as they snuck along the wall towards the docking bay monitoring station. “Whisper-quiet, too. I’ve foiled a couple of Imperial inspections with that before.”

“And you’re sure there are only three troopers in the monitor booth?” Leia asked. She had her hand wrapped tightly around the handle of her lightsaber. Just in case.

“Positive,” Han said. “There’s a typical complement of five troopers per docking bay. Two to do on-ship scans and three to monitor the overall bay. This area is usually a blind spot since ships can’t land this close to the walls of the bay without jeopardizing the personnel.”

Leia gave him an odd look. Han shrugged. “What? I’ve had experience avoiding Imperials before.”

“So we outnumber them,” Leia said. “Good.” She looked at Chewie. “How are we going to disguise him? No offense, but you’re not going to fit into stormtrooper armor.” 

Chewie didn’t answer, but he and Han exchanged looks. “Let’s just say that the site of a Wookiee on a large Imperial vessel isn’t exactly an unusual sight.”

Leia understood before the others did. “Slave labor.”

Han nodded. Then shushed them. “Chewie and I will go in first.” 

Then Han, of all possible actions, knocked on the door to the booth. 

When the door opened, it was over in a matter of seconds. Han shot one trooper while Chewbacca grabbed the other by the neck and slammed them into the wall.

“Stun bolts don’t leave a mark on the armor,” Han said, almost apologetically. “And we’re going to need to allay suspicion as much as we can.” 

Artoo and Threepio moved past him and the astromech droid plugged into the station’s computer system. 

“Can the controls be turned off from here?” Leia asked. 

“Unfortunately not,” Threepio said. “Artoo says that the controls are on an automatic cycle throughout the station and would only stay off for mere seconds at a time.”

“Hmm,” said Han, beginning to take the armor off of the stormtrooper and passing the pieces to Leia. “Not long enough to escape. We’ll have to sabotage them at their source.” Artoo brought up a display with routes to the controls; frustratingly, they were in two different areas of the station: one at the sphere’s north pole and the other at the sphere’s south pole. The  _ Falcon _ had been pulled into the docking bays at the equator. 

“Wait,” Ben asked. “Where is the third stormtrooper?”

The answer turned out to be right behind him.

Almost quicker than Leia could follow, Ben whipped around and sliced the trooper across the chest with his lightsaber. 

“Good reflexes,” Leia said, impressed. If he was this fast at his age, she wondered what he had been like in his prime. “But you just destroyed one of our disguises.”

“I will be fine without one,” Ben said, clipping his lightsaber back on his belt. “I’ll head to the tractor beam controls. One of you should find the interdictor controls, and the rest should stay here and deal with the other two troopers.”

“You’re dressed like a desert hobo,” Han pointed out. “And you  _ don’t _ need a disguise?”

“A Jedi has other ways of not being noticed,” Ben said. And then he was gone. 

“All right… I guess I should be the one to get to the interdictor controls,” Han said, beginning to put on armor from the other trooper. “The area will be monitored but the armor should be enough as long as I don’t get questioned.”

“Why?” Leia asked. “How do you know all of this stuff?”

Han looked down at his feet. “Another time, okay? Just trust me for now.”

Leia narrowed her eyes but let him go. 

Within ten minutes, the stormtroopers performing the scan on the ship returned to the station to check in. Chewie made quick work of them. 

Leia had worn stormtrooper armor before, and it was every bit as uncomfortable as it had been that time. She suspected that it was because of her size; the armor didn’t fit her particularly well. She supposed there probably weren’t a lot of petite stormtroopers out there.

Waiting was interminable, and she was just about to suggest that Chewie take the droids back to the ship when Artoo began beeping. 

“Oh my!” Threepio said. “Mistress Leia, Artoo has reported that our old master, Prince Luke, is currently aboard the station. He is being held in cell block AA-23, only a few levels above us. Though,” he added sadly, “I am not sure how a single stormtrooper disguise will allow you access to the detention level.” 

Leia exchanged a look with Chewie. “Well, I might be able to get up there if I have a prisoner to take.” 

Chewie gave a sad whine, but ultimately agreed. Leia grabbed a set of large handcuffs from the belt of one of the downed scanners, and placed them on Chewbacca’s wrists. He gave a sharp growl when she went to close them.

“Sorry,” she said, drawing back.

“Leave them open,” he growled. 

Leia turned to Artoo. “Artoo, do you have room for one of these?” she said, holding out her lightsaber. 

Artoo gave a beep that Leia interpreted as an affirmative, and a slot opened in his dome. Leia placed the saber inside and, after the slot had closed again, gave him an affectionate pat on the head. Artoo made a sound that sounded almost like a laugh. 

“Well,” Leia said, grabbing a comlink and adopting the stiff stormtrooper posture, “let’s go.”

* * *

Compared to getting the stormtrooper armor, keeping his mental shields up had almost been easy. Luke had lain in wait in one of the bathrooms, torn off a sleeve of his robe, and used it as a garotte on the next trooper who had come in. The fit of the armor was a little tall for him, but it was enough to mask his identity.

He could still feel Vader’s presence, probing, trying to find him. Luke locked down his mind tightly, though that wasn’t hard at the moment. Any feelings he had needed to be packed away until this was over. 

Alderaan was gone. Everyone he had ever loved was gone. 

No. Don’t think about that right now.

What had he done on the bridge that had felled even Vader himself?

Don’t think about that either. 

Luke kept walking, silently panicking at the thought that he might be stopped and questioned by another stormtrooper. Did stormtroopers even have names? There hadn’t been much of an Imperial presence on Alderaan until recently, so he never had to interact with them much personally. The foundation had an Imperial liaison to take care of that sort of thing. 

Had. Not anymore.

Don’t think about that. 

Just breathe.

Keep quiet. Keep moving. 

There was no time to find a map of the station. He gave a grim but silent laugh when he realized that all of this horror had begun  _ because  _ of the station plans. 

Of course, if he still had them, he probably wouldn’t be alive right now. 

Just breathe. Focus on surviving. 

It’s all you can do for now.

Get to the shuttle bay. Maybe he could steal a ship. He probably wouldn’t get very far, but it gave him far better odds than staying on the station would. 

At last, he found a bay that had a ship in it. A Corellian light freighter, disc-shaped, battle scarred. A complete piece of junk, but it could probably fly. 

He felt bad for the crew, probably taken prisoner themselves, but he had only two options: run, or make a vain attempt at a rescue. 

First, he should turn off the monitoring software. Hefting his blaster, he burst through the door of the booth… and came face to face with a pair of very familiar-looking droids.

“Threepio?” he asked, astonished. 

“It was a pair of Rebel spies!” Threepio exclaimed, indicating the prone forms of the two troopers, now stripped of their armor. “If you hurry, you might catch them!”

“Wait, what?” Luke asked. “Oh, the uniform.” He removed his helmet. 

“Master Luke!” Threepio cried, overjoyed. Artoo let out a series of happy beeps and whistles as well.

“What in the world are you doing here?” His face fell. “Did they catch you on Tatooine?”

“Not at all, Master Luke. Though we experienced several misadventures, we were able to obtain passage off of the planet in the company of General Kenobi, though I must admit that his tactics do leave something to be desired--”

“He’s here? Obi-Wan Kenobi is here?”

“He is indeed. In fact, Artoo has just reported that the tractor beam power supply has just been severed, meaning that he has accomplished his part of the mission to free our ship-- oh.” Artoo had begun beeping again. “Oh dear.”

“What is it?”

“Another one of our compatriots, a Captain Solo, has apparently triggered some kind of alert. This may hamper our attempts to leave if he cannot deactivate the interdictor field.” 

“Can I help? Where is it?” 

“I would recommend waiting until General Kenobi returns, Master Luke. At that point we can coordinate our respective pla-- oh no.” 

“Oh no?” Luke demanded.

“General Kenobi’s pupil, one Leia Skywalker, has already left for the detention block to try and free you.”

“But I’m right here.”

“Precisely.”

“Can you contact her?”

“I will try, Master Luke. It will depend on if she is still maintaining cover-- oh.”

“What now?” Luke demanded.

“It appears that maintaining cover is no longer a top priority for her at the moment.”

Before Luke even realized what he was doing, he asked Artoo to show him the route back to the last place he ever thought he would go.


	5. Rescue

A lightsaber would have come in handy at this point, Leia reflected as she dove for cover.

Too late now.

It turned out that 11-38 was not an actual cell block, and that Wookiees were never transferred to this particular block.

It also turned out that the stormtroopers on the Death Star’s detention block were considerably sharper than the ones stationed on Tatooine. And had better aim.

Chewie roared as several stun bolts hit him, and then slumped to the deck.

“Chewie!” she yelled, and then everything went blue and black.

* * *

She awoke to find that she had, at least, gotten further into the cell block.

So far, in fact, that she was locked in a cell of her very own.

All of her ached. It occurred to her that she had probably been awake for at least 24 hours at this point, and that the stun bolt had given her the closest thing to a nap she had had all day. Or night. Whatever time it was in space.

She sat cross-legged on the floor. At least she could meditate while she figured out what to do.

Maybe a mind trick? She’d have to get one of the guards to come talk to her first.

She gritted her teeth, and then slowly, carefully, opened herself to the Force.

Everything still felt raw and empty, but less intense than when she had first felt the planet’s destruction. The Force would regain its balance in time; for now it was still awry.

She stretched out her senses. The station was enormous, full of minds and emotions and connections. It was a strange sensation: most of them were like square blocks of stone, like bricks making up a wall, with no room for individuality or expression.

“Ben?” she asked silently. “Where are you?”

_How strange…_

That wasn’t Ben.

_Tell me, your highness, how is it that you have come to learn these powers?_

A voice in her head, hard as durasteel. Dark as the vacuum of space. No sparks of light shone from within it.

_A Force user with such power… one never seen before._

“Who is this?” she asked.

A horrible silence followed.

_Someone new? Another presence here?_

She began to feel it pressing up against her mind. She couldn’t hold it off.

A mental assault through the Force? How?

_Tell me how you came here._

Was this what it was like to be on the receiving end of a Jedi mind trick?

_The Jedi…_

Cut yourself off, she told herself. Shut the door.

It was too hard. The presence kept forcing it back open.

“Help me,” she cried aloud. Then she felt him.

Ben.

She felt the dark presence in her mind recede, and she was finally able to close the door.

Who was that? Someone on the station, as powerful in the Force as Ben. Only as steeped in the dark side as Ben was in the light.

“Quiet down,” came a trooper’s voice from outside her cell.

“Screw you,” she replied. The door to her cell opened; she was ready.

She took out two guards before a third one at the detention block station stunned her again.

* * *

Luke’s mental defenses were still locked down tight… but he could hear the plea in his mind.

_Help me…_

As soon as he was out of sight of any other troopers, he began to run down the corridor. By his recollection of the route Artoo had provided, he was almost there.

For some reason, despite the helmet, he could smell dust in the air.

* * *

The third time Leia woke up from being stunned, she had more or less given up hope of forcing her way out of the cell. Without a weapon or a way to use the Force without detection, she could only wait and hope that Ben would come and rescue her.

Suddenly, she heard blaster fire out in the corridor.

Han must have found out where she was. Sure enough, the door to her cell opened, showing a stormtrooper with questionable posture.

“About time,” she said. Then stopped. Han was taller than this.

She dropped into a combat stance. The trooper took a nervous step back and reached for his helmet.

Removing it revealed a familiar-looking young man with light brown hair and wide blue eyes.

“I’m Luke Organa,” he said. “I’m here to rescue you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re here with Obi-Wan Kenobi and those droids, right?”

She nodded.

“Then I’m here to rescue you.”

“Like hell you are.”

* * *

Something about her was _incredibly_ familiar, Luke thought. It kept nagging at him, which meant that he kept staring at her, which meant that she kept giving him increasingly suspicious looks as they made their way out of the detention block.

“What did you mean by that?” he asked, confused.

“I think you’re going to find that _I’m_ the one doing the rescuing around here,” she said. She certainly moved fluidly, despite the armor she was wearing, and the way she held the blaster indicated that she was proficient in its use.

“I think you might have a point,” he said.

“We’re going to have to find Chewie, get back to the monitoring station, and then find out where Han and Ben are.”

“What about Obi-Wan?” His father was here. His father was _actually here_ and Luke was finally going to meet him and get his questions answered.

“Ben _is_ Obi-Wan,” she said. “Ever heard of nicknames?”

“I’ve never met him before,” Luke said. “How was I supposed to know?” How was he already bickering with this stranger? “Wait, Threepio said that you were his pupil. Are you a Jedi?”

“Not the time to do introductions,” she said tersely. Then stiffened. She grabbed Luke by the arm and hauled him into what turned out to be some kind of maintenance closet.

“What’s going on?”

“A squad is coming,” she said. The helmets transformed whispering into an odd buzz.

It was then that he could hear them coming too, accompanied by the sound of a man yelling at the top of his lungs.

“Hang on,” he said. “They’re not moving in sync.”

“They’re running after someone.”

“Yeah, but this isn’t anywhere close the level of precision they usually have.” He moved past her to look through a crack in the door.

The stormtroopers were running for their lives.

“Something’s chasing them,” he said, confused.

Then he heard the distinctive roar of a Wookiee. The girl pushed past him and called out “Chewie!” Luke followed her and saw her wrapped in a giant hug by a Wookiee.

There was also a man there, taking off his helmet and looking visibly relieved to see her, as well as a little cocky.

“I can’t believe that _worked_ ,” the man said, incredulously.

He froze when he saw Luke. “Who is that?”

Luke took off his helmet. “Luke Organa. I’m here to--”

“He’s here to _be_ rescued,” the girl said, and Luke flushed with irritation. “Han, what just happened?”

“I got intercepted on my way to the interdictor power supply,” Han said. “Things kind of escalated from there. Any news about Ben?”

“Nothing yet. Let’s get back to the droids.”

“He deactivated the tractor beam,” Luke said. “Hopefully he’ll be waiting for us at the monitoring station and we can get out of here.”

“Not without the interdictor field deactivated too,” the girl said.

“Well, hang on,” Han said, “we might still be able to jump to lightspeed if we can get clear of the station’s field. As long as the tractor beam isn’t working, it can’t draw us back in. We just need to get out of here before they fix the thing.”

“How do you know it isn’t just powered down?” the girl asked.

“Because today is the same day I saw a crazy desert wizard slice a guy in half. I figure he probably wasn’t exactly gentle on the power supply either.”

“Wait,” Luke said, “he _sliced someone in half_?”

They were interrupted by the march of stormtrooper boots against the deck.

“Guess that wasn’t a permanent fix,” Han said. He took a few steps in the other direction and froze. “More coming from that direction too.”

“So we’re trapped?” the girl said grimly.

Han and Chewie were looking around the bare hallway frantically.

“There’s a closet here,” Luke offered.

“Won’t fit all of us,” Han said. Then the Wookiee gave a bark and pointed to a metal grate in the bottom half of the wall. “Oh, that’s not the _worst_ idea… Everyone stand back.” He blasted a giant hole in the grate. “Into the garbage chute!”

“What?” Luke asked.

A group of eight troopers arrived and began firing. Another group appeared from the other direction. Luke and the others pressed themselves against the wall to temporarily get out of the crossfire. He heard a cry as a stormtrooper was hit by one of his opposite number.

“Let’s go,” the girl said, giving him a push towards the hole. She stopped and turned to Han. “You’re sure there’s not an incinerator at the bottom of this thing?”

“Positive,” Han said. The girl gave him a strange look, then jumped down the hole. A foul stench floated up towards them. Luke fought back a gag and jumped.


	6. Crushed

Leia had never seen so much water in her life.

Assuming that this _was_ water. It definitely smelled more like a trash heap. Which made sense, because it _was_ a trash heap.

Luke, pampered prince that he was, stumbled a bit as he landed, but managed not to fall into the muck. Something about him had been nagging her until she heard him reference Ben, at which point it fell into place: he was the young man who had sent the message via Artoo.

Luke was searching through the pockets on his armor and pulled out a comlink. “Threepio? Are you there?” Static was the only reply.

“Must be hard to get a signal down here,” Leia replied as Han and Chewie landed beside them. Chewie, without the benefit of armor (or clothes in general), was considerably more grossed out than the rest of them.

“Sorry, big guy,” Han said, “We’ll get out of here in a second.” He found an access panel near the door against one wall. “Hmm. This is going to take a minute to work out.”

“Why isn’t there a door control in here?” Luke asked.

“Why would they need one?” Han asked.

“No really,” Leia said, growing increasingly suspicious. “How do you know all of this stuff?”

“Later,” Han said, still poking at the wiring inside the panel. “I think I can get a spark off of this… can you find something conductive in all this trash?”

As Leia and Luke searched, he tried to make small talk. “So, what’s your name?”

“Leia. Leia Skywalker.”

“Where are you from?”

“I’m from nowhere. Tatooine. Nowhere you’ve ever been.”

“I’ve been there, actually,” he said. “Well, almost.”

“Oh right, you’re that ‘mission of mercy’ Senator, aren’t you,” she said, a note of dismissal in her voice. “Are you still getting the best bang for your buck?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re throwing all of this money at a problem and it never even gets to the people who need it most.”

“We’re trying to solve problems, not treat the symptoms,” he said defensively.

“Well, hi, I’m a symptom, nice to meet you.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Well, what did you mean?”

“What I meant was--” Luke froze. “Something just brushed past my leg.”

Chewie moaned in distress.

“Ignore it,” Leia said, grateful for the interruption. She found a few likely scraps of metal and took them over to Han. “Will any of these work?”

“These two might,” Han said, taking them from her. “When we get back to the _Falcon,_ I think Chewie’s going to need to use the shower first.”

“I’ve never taken a real shower before,” Leia admitted.

“Seriously?” Luke asked.

“Desert planet, genius,” she shot back. Luke’s face went a little red.

“Well, don’t get too excited,” Han said. “It’s just water.”

“Water _is_ exciting,” she said.

A rumble suddenly filled the chamber.

“What was that?” Leia said.

“A sign that I should hurry,” Han said, going back to his work. “Come on, come on…” he muttered at the wiring.

“Oh no,” Luke breathed. “We’re in a trash _compactor_ , aren’t we?”

“Right on the money, kid,” Han said. “We’re going to be a whole lot thinner if I don’t get this door open soon.”

Luke began sorting through the debris for something substantial. “Try to brace it with something,” he said urgently.

“Wait,” said Leia. “I think I can hold this off.”

“With what?”

“Just trust me,” she said, and dropped into a trance.

She felt the whole station again, thousands of minds moving here and there. She could sense Ben; he was safe and moving towards the docking bay. Before the dark presence could find her, though, she drew back into herself.

Just breathe. Focus on this room.

Chewie, solid and sure, distressed but mostly worried about Han. Luke, surrounded by a slight haze of radiance but also surprisingly locked down. She saw the faintest trace of a locked door in his mind…

Think about that later. Focus on the room.

And Han, tightly focused on his work, drawing on memories he hadn’t thought about in nearly a decade…

She caught flashes of it: that first day at the Academy, trying to fit in, failing at even the simplest tasks. He tried so hard. He learned everything he could, thinking that if he was clever enough, it wouldn’t matter that he was different. Was this the life he really wanted?

And then he met Chewie and knew that it could never be his life. He could never serve anyone who would let others suffer in that way. So he left.

Han whipped around and looked at her with hurt eyes. He knew.

She didn’t mean to look.

(But you did mean to.)

Deal with it later. Focus on the room.

The walls were beginning to move. She stretched out with the Force and pushed.

Ben had tried to teach her that size didn’t matter to the Force, but she still couldn’t let go of that framework. Every part of her body and mind was straining against the pressure of the walls. It was like trying to widen Beggar’s Canyon. She wasn’t strong enough.

It was just enough to slow them down, but not enough to stop them.

“Han! Hurry!” she cried.

She didn’t know how much time was passing. It was just her and the walls and the Force and everything focused on this one task that she couldn’t succeed at and she was going to fail and they were all going to die in a stupid trash heap because she wasn’t strong enough--

Then she felt Luke grab her by the arm. “He got it open, Leia. Come on!”

The moment she was out of the chamber, she fell to her knees.

“Are you okay?” Han said, rushing to her. There must have been a look in her eyes when she raised her head because he flinched back. 

“You. You were an Imperial.” Her voice was blank.

Han was silent.

“That was why you knew so much about this place.”

“It wasn’t too different from the layout of a Star Destroyer,” he said quietly. “I spent a semester at the Academy on one; that was how I met Chewie.”

“Chewie…” Leia said, looking at the Wookiee and understanding. No wonder he was so distressed about being here, about the cuffs, about the stormtroopers. “You were a slave?”

Chewie nodded and made a small sound.

She looked at Han. “And you freed him.”

“He mostly freed himself,” Han admitted. “I was just his ride. We swiped a shuttle and managed to limp our way over to Nar Shaddaa. It’s been a smuggler’s life for the two of us ever since.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Leia asked.

“Because it was just the past,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, not anymore.”

“But it’s part of who you are. Why you’re here now.”

“No,” said Han. “Not like this. That part of me is gone.”

Leia looked pointedly at the piece of conductive metal in his hand. “Not _entirely_ gone by the looks of it.”

“That, actually, was an old trick I picked up from Ratti Tinada. He was a slicer who had done a good ten years in Kessel and was spending his sunset years teaching stupid flyboys like me how to pull a con or two because he thought it was funny. Actually, there was one time--”

She smiled. “When we’re back on the ship.”

“Sure thing, princess.”

* * *

Luke felt like he had barely had time to breathe since he was on the bridge of the Death Star. Rather than focusing on the truly breathless things (his planet, his family, his life), he made a conscious decision to only focus on the matters directly in front of him.

Unfortunately, all of those things were deeply _weird._

Han was a former Imperial, an Academy washout. Luke had heard stories about Wookiees: they held grudges for decades, but also held deep gratitude as well. Rescuing one would have earned Han a life debt, whether he wanted one or not. Chewbacca would always put him first, even at the cost of his own life.

Leia was a Jedi. She could move things with her mind, read other people’s thoughts-- he had felt the slight push of her thoughts against his mental barriers. It wasn’t the onslaught of Vader’s interrogation; mere curiosity, nothing more. 

Hopefully the droids were still safe. Once Luke and the others reached the ship, they would be able to rejoin the Rebel Alliance and take down the Death Star superweapon. Alderaan would be avenged. Other planets would be safe. There was still hope in the galaxy.

Not only that, but the Alliance would have a Jedi Master at their disposal. Maybe there were others out there like Leia who could be trained in the ways of the Force. Vader would no longer be the only Force-user out there. He could be defeated.

And Luke would finally be able to get some answers about his own past.

The route back to the docking bay seemed to take forever. They doubled back at times, hid in the most cramped spaces they could find (not a pleasant situation when dealing with a wet and smelly Wookiee), but made slow, steady progress to their destination. Han hot-wired the door behind them; they could hear the stormtroopers trying to force their way in.

The droids were still in the monitoring booth, but Obi-Wan was nowhere to be found.

“Can you sense where he is?” Luke asked Leia as they rejoined the droids.

“Maybe…” she said. “There’s another presence here… not a good one… that found me the last time I tried to find Ben.”

“Darth Vader,” Luke said with a shudder. He knew what it was like to have him in his mind.

“Wait, he’s _here_ ?” Leia said with a sudden ferocity. “Artoo, give me my lightsaber. _Now.”_

The droid complied.

“What are you doing?” Han asked, concerned and, Luke could see, slightly afraid. Luke knew how he felt-- he was a little scared of Leia himself.

“If that monster is here,” Leia said, “then I’m taking him out.”

“Are you sure?” Han asked. “I mean… I’ve heard stories about the guy. He’s killed dozens of Jedi, right?”

Leia nodded grimly. “Including my parents. I’m going after him.”

“Leia, wait--” Luke said. “He’s the strongest Force user alive. Shouldn’t you wait for Obi-Wan and face him together?”

Leia looked extremely conflicted, and seemed like she was about to open her mouth with a decision, when she suddenly froze. “He’s here. Close.”

Luke could feel it too. “And Obi-Wan?”

She nodded. “He’s here too… the next docking bay over. Artoo, can you open the way between the bays?”

Artoo beeped, and Threepio translated. “I’m afraid that there isn’t direct access between this bay and the one directly adjacent. You would have to go back out into the corridor to reach the other bay--”

“--which is currently crawling with stormtroopers,” Han said, peeking out into the hall quickly.

“--however,” Threepio continued, “it would be possible for Artoo to trigger the wall’s one-way transparency function, in case you would prefer to witness the activities in the next room.”

“We can at least see what’s going on,” said Han. “Come on, Leia.”

Luke followed them out into the docking bay.

The wall shimmered and the other bay was suddenly visible.

Inside of it was something he had never seen outside of holodramas: an actual lightsaber fight.

Vader’s saber, glowing a deep blood red, was facing off against Kenobi’s blue one. Sound couldn’t travel through the walls, but Luke knew that the racket from the blades colliding was likely to be intense, if not deafening.

He had never seen even a photo of Kenobi before, but he looked every inch the Jedi that Luke had pictured. Tall, bearded, wearing simple brown robes; he moved with an agility that defied the years on his face. He and Vader fought fiercely, matching each other blow for blow, never quite landing a hit on the other.

They also seemed to be speaking to one another.

Soon, however, Luke’s heart sank. Kenobi was agile, but his age was catching up with him. Vader’s blows were getting flashier, and Obi-Wan was just barely managing to deflect them. He was getting tired.

Suddenly, they both stopped. Obi-Wan said something. His face was full of peace and purpose, he must have reached a breakthrough that would finally stop Vader once and for all.

Then Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber. Vader swung, and it was all over.

A strange thing happened, though: there was no body to be found. Merely empty robes. For a wild moment, Luke thought that maybe Obi-Wan had survived somehow using a Jedi trick; maybe he had teleported. But the pain in his heart told him otherwise.

Both of his fathers had died today.

He heard Leia screaming and igniting her lightsaber. He felt the same rage that was radiating off of her, but it was followed by a sudden horrible clarity: if Leia fought Vader, they were all going to die.

So he grabbed her from behind to keep her from running off.

“Get _off_ of me!” she growled, turning her lightsaber off to keep from accidentally hitting him. “I have to face him! It’s my destiny! Ben said it was my destiny!”

“Not today, it isn’t,” Luke said. “Listen, we have to go. All we can do is escape and live to fight another day.”

“Ben _isn’t_ living,” she said, throwing him off of her. He grabbed her again, this time in something closer to a hug.

“I know. _I know,_ ” Luke said, winded. “I know how you must be feeling right now.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “My _entire planet_ was destroyed today. Everyone I ever loved is gone. Dead. By those horrible people who just killed your master. Who just--” he swallowed. “Who just killed my _father._ ”

“Your father?” Leia said.

“Obi-Wan was my father and I never got to meet him. I didn’t know him. But if he was anything like my adopted father, he wouldn’t want you to throw your life away because of him. He would want you to keep fighting, but would want it to be a fight you could _win_ . So we have to go. We have to go _now_.”

She snarled at him. “Get. Out. of my. _Head!_ ” and shoved him backwards across the deck. He landed hard.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded.

Han intervened. “He’s right, Leia. This is our best chance to escape. Vengeance can come later, but we have to get out of here.”

They still had to pull her onto the ship, but something in her had already accepted it.

As they hit hyperspace, the walls around Luke’s mind and heart began to erode.

Now you’re safe.

Now you can think about it.

Everyone you’ve ever loved.

Gone.


	7. Interlude: In the Dark

Parts of his breathing apparatus were still malfunctioning. It was only through drawing on the power of the Dark Side that he was even still standing. 

But standing he was. Not just standing, but  _ triumphant _ . Kenobi, that weak old man, was dead and with him the last of the Jedi tradition. He should be, not exactly happy, but satisfied. 

But he wasn’t. 

Because of the boy. 

His first clue should have been during the interrogation: the prince’s mental blocks were too well-formed to be mere intuition. He must have been trained… by that fool of a father, most likely. Vader had never attempted a probe on him, but Organa always had the look of someone who knew more than he let on. No wonder, seeing as he was likely as steeped in the activities of the Rebellion as his son. 

But that boy couldn’t possibly be Organa’s son. 

Not after what Vader had witnessed today. 

The bridge of the Death Star was still being put back together after the incident. Several officers, including Motti, had been killed instantly. Tarkin, somehow, had survived despite a severely broken neck but his condition was critical. If it had been up to Vader, he would have put the preening creature out of his misery, but the Emperor’s will was law: “Tarkin is still of use to us. Make sure he survives.”

While Tarkin was in the medbay, however, that meant that Vader was in charge of the station. While insignificant compared to the power of the Force, it still had its uses. Small men like Tarkin would respect it… though Vader would make sure that they knew better over time. 

But in the meantime, there was the matter of the boy. Vader would find him, capture him, and turn him over to the Emperor. 

Furthermore, once he was found, the girl could be found as well. A pupil of Kenobi’s, no doubt, some young thing he had found in desperate circumstances and attempted to train. But Vader knew well how ineffective Kenobi’s training could be. She would be easy to turn. 

And if she refused, she would die.


	8. Whiskey

It sort of felt like she and Luke were competing to see who had the right to be sadder.

“It’s  _ not  _ a competition,” he said to Leia. “We both… well, we both had extremely horrible days.”

“Your whole planet was destroyed.”

“You knew, like, a dozen people and one of them just died.”

“Two of them, actually,” she said.

“See what I mean?”

Han was, unfortunately, extremely out of his depth as far as comforting the grieving went. He came up with the excuse of some component that needed repairing while they were in hyperspace.

“I’ll be here if you need me, though,” he told Leia as he and Chewie went to find it. Assuming the component even existed.

Luke found where Han kept clean(-ish) blankets in the berth, handed one to Leia and took one for himself.

“Why this?” she asked him.

“I can’t think of any other way to show care right now,” he admitted, sitting down on Chewbacca’s bed. “I don’t know if Han has any tea on board.”

“Probably not.”

“I’m certainly not going to ask him,” Luke said. “My father used to make great tea. We had a special blend that you couldn’t get anywhere else.”

“Anything water-based would have been a luxury on Tatooine. Unless you were drinking in a cantina, most beverages were bantha milk based.”

“I bet you could still brew up something nice from it.”

“Who wants a hot drink on a desert planet?” she pointed out.

“Speaking of which… do you think Han has anything to drink here?”

“Depends on how drunk you want to get, I bet.”

“How about ‘extremely’?”

“Then I think our odds are good.” She hunted around the berth and found a mostly-full bottle of Corellian whiskey, as well as some clear liquor that might have actually been engine coolant but was probably whatever Wookiees used to get intoxicated.

“Any sign of food while you’re searching?”

Leia found a few nutrition bars that looked worryingly old. “I’m not sure these are for internal use,” she said skeptically.

“I’ve been languishing in an Imperial prison; I’ll take it,” he said with a faint smile. She tossed one to him and then went to curl up on Han’s bunk before she remembered that it would be hard to pass the whiskey back and forth from there. And while she didn’t want to share, she supposed she didn’t have much choice in the matter.

“Scoot over,” she told Luke. He obeyed, and the two of them sat side by side on the generously-sized bunk, attempting to chew their individual nutrition bars.

“When was the last time you ate?” he asked her.

“I don’t know… breakfast at home? So… two days. Maybe three? It all kind of blurred together.”

“I know that feeling.”

“Can I ask what they did to you?” she said quietly.

“Not now,” he said. He looked suddenly very far away. “Not yet.” He gave another faint smile, then said, “Could you tell me about Tatooine?”

“Why?”

“I’m curious. I want to know what I missed. I was on my way there before my ship was captured by the Empire.” He took a swig of the whiskey. “Plus, it’s probably a safer topic.”

“Why do we have to talk, anyway?” she said, taking the bottle back.

“Do  _ you _  want to be alone with your thoughts right now?”

“Not really, no.” The crying was over, for now. What was left was just confusion and emptiness.

“So tell me about Tatooine.”

“Okay,” she said, taking another drink. “So the first thing you have to keep in mind is that the whole planet is really, really poor.”

“Got it.”

“I mean, almost everyone’s basically one bad season away from starving. We help each other out, the other farms and families, but there just isn’t a lot to go around. The only people with real credits are the ones who work for the Hutt cartels: mostly drugs, but some slaves too.”

“Slaves? Really?”

“Yeah. No one gives a shit what goes on out in the Outer Rim, and most Imperials will turn a blind eye if you pay them enough. Not that the Empire isn’t neck deep in the trade itself; you were there when I found out about Chewie.”

“When you read Han’s mind, you mean.”

“That was… that wasn’t something I meant to do.”

“You used the Force.”

“So did you,” she said. “You tried to mind trick me back there.”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Yes, you did.”

“I really didn’t! Look, you were upset, you--”

“I know what I felt. And it was you. In my mind.” She took another drink. “Just like Vader was.”

He snatched the bottle from her. “I am  _ nothing _  like Vader,” he said with sudden intensity. “I had that monster in my mind for  _ hours _  and I am  _ nothing _  like him, do you hear me?” He put the bottle aside. “How dare you,” he finished quietly.

They were silent for a time. Then Leia said, “You have no idea that you’re doing it, do you?”

Luke gave an exasperated sigh. “Apparently not.”

“You seriously never noticed? That people were just agreeing with you right and left?”

“I assumed for a long time that it was because I was a Prince, you know? I don’t hear ‘no’ a lot.” Not until Winter came along, at least. He shut his eyes and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyelids until he saw stars.

He had already mourned Winter once. He wasn’t yet ready to do it again.

“So are you a Jedi?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Almost.”

“What does that mean, ‘almost’?”

“You don’t learn to be a Jedi in the course of an afternoon,” she said scornfully. “I’ve been working at this for years--”

“Well obviously.”

“--and you have to go through something called the Trials, and after that you’re an official Jedi. I’m just an apprentice right now, but I know I’m ready to face them… only there’s no one to tell me what they are.” Her composure began to crumble ever so slightly, until she made a conscious effort to compose herself. Luke recognized that strategy; it was the same one he was using now.

“I’d like to hear about him,” Luke said softly.

Leia shook her head. “I’m… I’m not sure I can do that yet. All of my memories of him… they still feel like, like this precious resource. Like water, and there’s only so much of them to go around. I’m not ready to share him yet.”

“I get it. Some day. When you’re ready to talk about him.”

“He never mentioned having kids,” she said.

“I heard Jedi weren’t supposed to have them.”

“And yet, here we both are.”

“Your parents were Jedi?”

“My father was,” Leia said. “Anakin Skywalker. He was a pupil of Ben’s. He died when I was really young… like right after I was born, so I never knew him. My mother, either… It was Vader who killed them. Both of them.”

“Yeah, I remember you saying that.”

“So we’ve got that in common, I guess.”

“I wonder how many other Jedi orphans are running around now?” he mused.

“Unless  _ all  _ the Jedi were breaking the rules, probably not many.”

“Then it’s kind of weird that we met each other, huh?”

“Yeah. Though running headlong at the Empire has a way of throwing people together, I bet.”

“Hey, you may have run straight at them, but I was just trying to get to Tatooine,” he said, holding his hands out in surrender.

“No wonder they thought you were suspicious.  _ No one _  goes to Tatooine unless they’re suspicious,” she said, smiling.

“I’m very good at not being suspicious,” he said.

“And locking down your thoughts.”

“ _ Now _  who’s mind-reading?” he accused her with a grin. The whiskey was starting to kick in.

“I mean, it’s really amazing. You actually held off an Imperial interrogation? With no Jedi training?”

He found himself imitating Winter. “What can I say? I’m fantastic.”

“Oh, and such a modest prince too,” Leia giggled.

“So give me a rundown,” he said, picking up the bottle again. “What’s in the standard ‘Jedi power package’?”

“Ugh, Ben would be  _ so _  annoyed with you for that,” she groaned. “The Force is about… it’s all about  _ connections _ , you know? All of these points of light and life in the universe… they’re all connected and in this beautiful balance. You don’t just  _ use _  the Force, you  _ are _  the Force.” She took the bottle from him and regarded it for a moment. “You know, I think I might be getting drunk.”

“Me too.”

“I’m not showing you any damn Jedi tricks, no matter how drunk you get me.”

“Excuse me, but I think you’ll find that  _ you’re _  the one getting you drunk.”

“Excuse  _ you _ , but I think you’ll find that  _ Han’s _  the one getting me drunk,” she shot back.

“What’s the deal with the two of you, by the way?” Luke asked. “And I’ll have that back, by the way, if you’re just going to stare at the bottle.”

Leia twisted it out of his reach. “Just give me a second.” She took another drink and passed it back to him. “There’s not a  _ thing _  between us. There might have been, once, but… I don’t know. I ran into him again and he’s suddenly not just this cute roguish guy who tells stories. He stopped being  _ simple _  and started being  _ complicated _ \--”

“He started being a real person to you, you mean.”

“Exactly. Precisely, as Ben would say.” She sighed. “I guess I’m talking about him anyway.”

“It sounds like he was a big part of your life. Obi-Wan, er, Ben, I mean.”

“He was. He was a lot like I hoped my dad might have been, though some of the hints Ben dropped over the years indicated that he might have been a lot more like  _ me _  than Ben.”

“Which would be a good thing, I think?”

“Only about fifty percent of the time, really. The other fifty percent were sort of muttered under his breath when he thought I couldn’t hear him.”

Luke laughed.

“So, your turn,” she said, passing him the bottle.

“To drink?”

“To answer a question.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“How the hell did you get out of your cell on the Death Star?”

“I mean,” Luke said, taking another drink, “technically I got out of my cell because they took me out of it. I escaped from the bridge.” He gave a tired laugh. “Right in front of Vader and Tarkin and everyone.”

“How?”

“I…” He frowned. “I don’t remember. All I remember was Alderaan… exploding, and then everyone was on the ground and I was running for my life.”

“Knockback, maybe?”

He nodded, slowly. “Maybe. Maybe I just happened to be standing in the right place at the right time. Maybe it was luck.”

Leia imitated Ben: “In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.”

“Just the Force, right?”

“Basically, yeah,” Leia said.

“Well, if I was able to use the Force to knock over an entire bridge of Imperial officers--”

“Not to mention a Sith Lord--”

“Precisely. Exactly. Then I’m basically some kind of Force prodigy because I’ve never seen  _ anything _  like that before.”

“Ha,” Leia said. “Hey, maybe I’ll figure out how to become a Jedi and then I can take you on as an apprentice.”

“I think I have a Rebellion to help run or something.”

“You’re not sure?”

“Well, a lot of it was based on Alderaan and I’m kind of the only one left…”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Ugh, don’t go saying that.”

“Saying that I’m sorry?” she asked, confused.

“I’m going to get so  _ sick _  of hearing that. I’m already sick of it. It’s such a stupid thing thing to say--”

“Hey!”

“Not stupid. Just, like, inadequate to the situation. ‘Oh, your entire planet blew up?  _ Sorry. _ ’ ‘Oh, everyone you know is dead?  _ Sorry. _ ’ ‘Oh, you never got to make up to the only girl you maybe ever loved? Well, I’m  _ so sorry _ .’” He started to tear up. “It doesn’t encompass all the things I’m feeling now. I’m feeling so many things and the only things that are coming to mind are incredibly stupid things like ‘my favorite mug is gone’ and ‘I’m going to have to rebuild the foundation and it’s going to take forever especially since all of my personnel records are ashes at the moment.’ And they all--” A sob escaped him. “--they all died because of me.”

“That’s not true, Luke,” she said automatically.

“You don’t know,” he said. “You have no idea what happened. The Death Star went to Alderaan because that was the only way they could think of to get information out of me. I even told them… I made something up to buy some time… but it was all worthless because they blew up the fucking planet anyway. Because I was  _ from _  there. Because it was the only way they could think of to break me. And they did. They broke me. I’m broken now.”

“That’s not… I’m not sure if that’s true. But I can acknowledge that that all really sucks.”

“It really does,” he said with a bitter laugh.

“It was still the Empire that pressed the button, though.”

“Yeah.”

“So that part wasn’t you.”

“I know.”

“Okay. So.”

“So?” he said, slightly confused.

“You get  _ one _  Jedi trick. But just one.”

Luke laughed.

“Give me the bottle,” she instructed. Luke passed it to her. “Now let’s see… my TK is complete bantha poodoo, but I think I’ve got this…” The bottle began to float in the air in front of them.

Luke reached out and gave it a poke on the label.

“No touching the Jedi props!” she said, slapping his hand.

“Sorry!” he said, and sat on his hands. Leia moved the bottle up to a height just over the top of her head.

“And… tip!” she said. The bottle tipped and poured out a stream of whiskey, which splashed down onto Leia’s face just above her upper lip. She yelped and got some whiskey up her nose. Luke managed to pick up the bottle before it made the bed  _ too _  wet.

“I think I think I just failed the Jedi Trials,” she said, laughing.

“Just don’t go into bartending as a backup career.”

She gave him a shove and grabbed the whiskey back from him.

* * *

When Han came back to the berth, he found Leia drowsily playing with Luke’s hair while he slept with his head in her lap. She was most definitely drunk.

“My entire Whyvern’s Reserve,” Han groaned, seeing the empty bottle.

“Shhhhh,” Leia said. “He’s sleeping.”

“You could have at least stuck to the Kashyyyk Inferno.”

“He’s got, like, perfect hair. It’s so weird,” Leia said, picking up a strand of it.

“Let’s get you to bed, okay? Let Luke sleep.” He helped her up. Luke’s head dropped to the bed but he remained blissfully unconscious.

“You’re great,” she murmured, swaying a little beside him.

“All drunk little mynocks say that.”

“No, I mean. I’m just… I’m sorry I read your mind before. That wasn’t okay.”

“I forgive you.”

“And I’m glad you didn’t try to say ‘it’s okay’.”

“You might still be in trouble with Chewie.”

“He’s going to be even more upset when he finds out we spilled whiskey on his bed.”

“We’ll blame that one on Luke, okay?” he said with a wink. He helped her into his bunk, put a blanket over her, and then headed back to the cockpit.


	9. Rain

“Truth be told,” the Rebellion general said, “the biggest hurdle we had to clear was convincing anyone that this superweapon was even real.”

“Even some of our own people still think it’s an exaggeration,” her lieutenant added. “Not to mention the rest of the galaxy.”

“It’s still hard to believe, even for me,” Luke said. 

“And you were on the thing,” Leia said. 

“Let me say again how relieved we are that you escaped at all,” the general said, “let alone with such valuable data. When we heard about Alderaan, we feared the worst.”

“Your fears were not unfounded,” Luke admitted. “It was a narrow escape, one I could not have managed without the help of Skywalker and Solo.”

“You make us sound like the title of a holodrama,” Leia said, with a slight blush. “But you’re welcome.” 

Luke was definitely back in his element, she suspected. His voice had grown more formal, he used fewer contractions, and his mental barriers were locked down tight. If she hadn’t been able to talk with him more informally on the trip, she would have thought he was an irritating stuck-up royal twit. 

Though, on further reflection, maybe this  _ wasn’t _ his element. Not really. Maybe he was really the drunken dork she had connected with in the shared space of grief. Or maybe he was like her, leading a double life. 

“Our analysts are attempting to find a weakness in the station,” the lieutenant said. “We should know something more solid in the next few hours.”

“How likely is it that you’ll find one?” Leia asked.

“Everything has a weakness,” Luke said. 

“I mean one we could realistically exploit.”

Why did she just say ‘we’? This wasn’t her fight. All she wanted to do was get away from Tatooine until things were safe--well, safer-- and she could go back and resume her life. Of course, she didn’t even particularly  _ want _ that, but it was all she was required to do at the moment. Fighting for a Rebellion wasn’t part of that plan. 

Leia knew where that sort of thing could lead. At best, it would mean delaying her return home. At worst, it would mean never returning to Tatooine at all. 

She would gladly die for her neighbors, but not for the galaxy. Ben would have given her grief for that opinion. 

She wasn’t a Jedi yet, she reminded the Ben in her imagination. If she only wanted to be the guardian of peace and justice in Anchorhead, so be it. That wasn’t a waste. 

The longer she stayed on Yavin, the more she thought about home. The planet’s climate was tropical and extremely humid. The Rebels had taken up shelter in the ruins of old temples on the planet. Being indoors made her nervous: it trapped the warm humid air in its rooms without the breeze that circulated outside. The whole place smelled of sweat and what she learned was mildew after she found some growing in a corner of her quarters. She imagined what kind of harvest a moisture farmer could bring in with this level of water in the air. Here you wouldn’t even need a vaporator; you could just catch it in buckets when it rained.

Rain.

It was amazing. 

She had taken her first shower on the  _ Falcon _ , but it was nothing like the feeling of being caught outside fully clothed, feeling the movement of it all over her and knowing that it would be there even if she started walking. The first afternoon, she had jumped in puddles. 

The novelty hadn’t quite worn off yet. When traveling from the structure that housed the Rebel quarters to the one that served food or to the one where Luke was embedded in strategic discussions, Leia would slow her usually brisk walk and smell all the life in the air. 

The longer she stayed, she suspected, the more attached she would get. 

No wonder Ben had warned her about attachments, though he probably wouldn’t have warned her about this one. It was so easy to feel the Force here; it practically made her skin tingle with all of the life and energy around her. 

Ben would have convinced her to stay, she thought. But Ben wasn’t here. 

Unfortunately for her growing internal conflicts, Han was taking his time preparing the  _ Falcon _ for departure. Every time she thought they were finally ready to go, he would discover some other part of the ship that had been damaged by the debris from Alderaan’s destruction and would need repair. It had been two days already and with each passing minute it was growing harder to leave. 

He was also frustratingly reticent about discussing where they were going to go next. 

“It should be somewhere nice,” he said, “but I think I just got stiffed out of fifteen thousand credits so it might limit our options for a vacation.”

She had tried broaching the subject of payment with Luke but he gave her such an uncomprehending look that she felt uncomfortable bringing it up until a more appropriate time had come. And it, unfortunately, had not come yet. 

She found herself settling into a routine. Meals, walks, pestering Luke, pestering Han, and avoiding talking to the Rebel soldiers who lived there. 

The last one took up most of her time. She wasn’t always successful.

“All these years and there’s been a Jedi living in the ass-end of the galaxy,” one of the fighter pilots said. “Why couldn’t he have come along before now? We were nearly flattened trying to get off Geonosis last year; a Jedi would have come in handy.”

“Jedi aren’t around to be your toy soldiers,” Leia said, annoyed. 

“I’m sorry that he died,” he added. “That must have been tough.”

Leia didn’t answer, but continued eating her food as quickly as possible.

“So, what about you?” he asked. “You were his trainee, right?”

“I was,” she said in a tight voice. 

“I’m not  _ blaming _ you or anything, but we could have really used some help recently. Why did it take you so long to join the Rebellion? It’s not like you had any love for the Empire anyway, not with the way they cart off anyone with Force powers.”

“I haven’t joined the Rebellion.”

“You’re joking, right?” he said. 

“I’m not,” she said. “The place I’m from, we hate the Empire, but there are a lot of bad guys to go around over there. And I know the Rebellion doesn’t care about a bunch of poor farmers.”

The pilot was silent for awhile. He actually seemed to be considering what she was saying, which was not how she was used to having arguments. Leia had to check and make sure she hadn’t accidentally mind-tricked him. 

“You have a point,” he said. “The Rebellion hasn’t been great at local affairs, but I wonder if it can afford to be at this point. Taking care of your own, I get that, but it’s a little hard to stay out of the way when one side is flying around with a planet-killer.”

“You could use that as a justification for most things, though.” 

“I guess so. And you could even say that I’m trying to take care of my own: Corellia’s not too far down the list of the Empire’s next targets, I bet. But I think, for me, it comes down to hitting a threshold: eventually someone does something so evil that you have to act. You have to do something to stop them.”

Leia thought back to that night when she first hatched her plan to take on the Hutts. They used to be a necessary evil; the alternative to the inflexible Imperials. But then they burned down her farm. 

“What are you thinking about?” the pilot asked her curiously. He looked a little older than some of the other recruits, with dark brown hair and eyes that seemed to be perpetually narrowed. He didn’t smile very much but looked friendly all the same. 

Leia decided to tell him. “My friends and I used to race skyhoppers through this canyon back home. The best way to go faster was to move side to side as little as possible, so you had to line yourself up just right to keep from drifting. But there were a couple of curves where you  _ had _ to steer, because otherwise you would crash and burn. Your threshold comment reminded me of that.”

He gave her a rare smile. “Skyhoppers, eh? T-25s?”

“T-16s.”

“Old, but classics. Ever tried flying outside of atmo?”

“This is the first time I’ve ever even been more than 200 kilometers from home, let alone space,” she admitted.

“Ooo, well, if you’ve flown the T-16s you’ll love X-wings. They get great speed without being fragile like the A-wings are. Very maneuverable.” 

His eyes were lighting up like Biggs’ did whenever he talked about ships. She couldn’t help but smile. “Sounds interesting,” she said. She held out a hand. “Leia Skywalker.”

He shook it. “Wedge Antilles. We’re doing flight certs later this afternoon,” he said. “We do atmo flying and then take them up into low-orbit for zero-g maneuvers. Why don’t you come out and try one?”

Biggs would have loved this. She decided to give it a shot, even if it was only so she could torment him about it when she got home. 

Because she  _ was _ going home. No matter what.

* * *

“Lasers at five percent will just scratch the paint,” Wedge assured her. “ _ Please _ double-check and make sure that’s the level; if you’re as good as you say you are, I’d obviously like to be able to land again in one piece.”

“We’re okay, right Artoo?” Leia asked the astromech droid stationed behind her. The droid whistled in the affirmative, accompanied by a “Yes” on the X-wing’s display monitor. She turned on the ship’s repulsors, lifting it off the ground of the shipyard; retracted the landing gear, keyed in the thrusters, and then followed Wedge as he flew his ship out over the trees. 

From above, the jungle was an almost startling shade of green and blue, with the remains of the afternoon rain sparkling like crystal in the glow of the gas giant that Yavin 4 orbited. Leia was so entranced by the sight that Wedge had to signal her twice before she finally snapped to attention and followed him through basic maneuvers designed to give her a sense of the ship’s capabilities. 

The X-wings  _ did _ map closely to the T-16s, Leia had to admit, but were able to do so much more. 

“Now, once we go up into low-orbit, you might feel a bit disconcerted,” Wedge warned as they began to ascent. “This is because you’re probably used to feeling the pull of the g-forces when flying in atmo. I’d recommend dialing down the compensators to ninety percent until you adjust; no more than that, though, unless you want to hork all over the inside of your cockpit.”

“Copy that,” Leia replied. After some fiddling, she settled on ninety-five percent: it let her still feel the pull of the ship during turns but without being overwhelming. 

“Get ready,” Wedge said. “We’re about to go through some more complicated maneuvers.” He pulled the ship up into a sharp ascent. “Unlike atmo, you have more vertical room to work with, so to speak. There’s no ‘down’ up here, though it’s sometimes helpful to orient yourself towards the planet, but do what feels comfortable for now. We use a different system for coordinates when flying in deep space, but you shouldn’t have to worry about that; your R2 unit can provide you with headings.”

It took some time for Leia to let go of her planet-bound assumptions; it was too easy to fall into the trap of flying on a single horizontal axis. 

This was space. She could go anywhere. 

“Right, so now instead of following me, we’re going to work on some dodging. Head to the coordinates I’m sending you--” Leia’s display flashed, and Artoo supplemented it with directional arrows. “--and then start flying towards my position. I’m going to be firing at you, but from a stationary position. As long as you don’t dodge by flying right into me, we should be good. Once you’ve passed me, we’ll loop around and try it again. Ready?”

“Ready,” Leia said. 

She flew at him as he started firing. After the first few passes, she noticed that Wedge tended to fire in a way that felt to her like she was being cornered in an ever-contracting circle. Every dodge she made seemed to have been anticipated, leading to a shot splashing across her hull and dragging her back into the targeting zone. He wasn’t Force-sensitive, that much she could determine, but he flew with so much of his heart and mind that he might as well have been. 

The next few hours passed in what seemed like minutes. Leia’s dodging skills still needed work but her targeting was top-notch, according to Wedge. All those years of shooting womp rats in Beggar’s Canyon had paid off. By the end of it, she was even able to do some basic dogfight maneuvers. Both X-wings were missing swaths of paint by the time they wrapped up the session. 

“The thing you need to remember,” Wedge said as they began heading back towards the planet, “is situational awareness. Where you are, where everyone around you is. If you can’t do that, you’ll end up bumping into someone at three hundred clicks and you’ll both be ash.”

Ben used to tell her something similar about lightsaber combat. “No small number of Jedi have lost an arm due to focusing too much on where a single foe was and not enough on where their allies were.”

Ben’s answer to that was to stretch out with the Force. Leia supposed that the same strategy would work for piloting as well. 

She stretched out with her feelings, taking in the traces of the distant planet’s life force as well as the emptiness of space around her. It wasn’t empty, of course; the Force was out here too, in the energy passing through the darkness and cold. The Force was present in starlight, in cosmic radiation, and even the void itself. The turning of stars and gravity of planetary bodies were all aligned in a perfectly balanced dance through the cosmos. 

Something else, though. 

There was something else coming. 

“Wedge!” she cried into the comms as a large sphere of metal emerged from hyperspace into orbit around the gas giant. 

Wedge swore loudly in response. “Look at the size of that thing!”

The Death Star had found them.

* * *

It was late on the second day that Luke went to find Han. He had thought the  _ Falcon _ would have been on its way by now. Not that Luke wasn’t glad that it had remained.

“It’s the free food and lodging,” Han explained with a cheeky grin. 

“You still sleep on the  _ Falcon _ ,” Luke pointed out. 

“Yes, but the food isn’t too bad here. Plus,” he gestured to the outside of his ship, “free parts to repair the  _ Falcon _ with. Can’t turn down a deal that good.”

“I suppose,” Luke said, uncomfortably.

“Especially since I haven’t gotten paid for this trip yet. I’m not exactly near any of my usual spots.”

Luke winced. “I apologize. I should have remembered the matter of payment.”

“It’s not your fault; you weren’t the one I made the arrangement with. Though,” he said with another grin, “I certainly wouldn’t turn down the offer of a few credits.”

Luke nodded. “It would admittedly be fairly callous of us to send you off with just a handshake and a ‘thanks for the help’. When I have time, I’ll see what we can offer. Out of curiosity,” he said, “how much were you supposed to receive?”

“Fifteen thousand.”

Luke blinked. “Seriously? Just for passage to Alderaan? What lunatic offered you that much?” Seeing the look on Han’s face, Luke sighed. “Oh. Of course.” 

“If it’s any consolation, Leia thought it was a bit nuts as well.”

“I suppose he assumed that my father would foot the bill,” Luke said, thinking. Assuming that he could access his accounts, he would be able to transfer that much. It was just a matter of when. And how. 

He supposed he was also now in control of his entire family’s wealth. While still a sobering thought, it did pose some interesting opportunities for the Rebellion if he could access it. There was no better monument to his family than to continue the fight his father helped start. 

“I know it’s not much, but I’m sorry,” Han said. “Losing your parents is a hard thing.”

“Have you?” Luke said, snapping back to his thoughts.

Han nodded. “I was in my early teens. Nothing like yours… just stupid diseases.”

“Doesn’t sound stupid,” Luke said. “I’m sorry too.” The words still felt meaningless, but he was reconciling himself to the fact that words didn’t really exist to convey the magnitude of the situation. ‘Sorry’ might have to suffice. 

“Have you seeing Leia around?” Han asked. “She went off to the mess and then never came back.” 

Luke smiled. “She’s learning how to fly an X-wing.” He had been monitoring the comms for a little while before going to talk to Han. It sounded promising, though he wasn’t sure how Han was going to take the idea of Leia staying here on Yavin. 

Han was pleased, in fact. “Oh, that’s a relief. I thought she’d never get involved.”

Luke cocked his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Han shrugged. “I mean, this place is definitely her, you know? She’s a fighter; if you heard half the stuff I heard about her on Tatooine, you’d get it. This Rebellion is the obvious place for her to channel that fight.”

“She said she wanted to go back to Tatooine.”

Han sighed. “Yeah, I know. I’ve been trying to give her a little more time here, though. If anything because if she goes back to Tatooine now she’s either going to be in trouble or manage to  _ get _ herself into trouble. I was hoping that if she got a better look at how things were, she’d maybe decide to stay and fight.”

“And what about you?”

Han shrugged again. “Beats me. I’m not really in this for your Rebellion, but I see the appeal. I figured I’d stick around until she makes her decision--”

“--the ‘right’ decision, in your opinion--”

“Okay yeah, I’ll admit that’s not the  _ most _ respectful strategy. But yeah, after she realizes what she’s supposed to be doing, I’ll head back to business. It’s not cheap keeping a ship like the  _ Falcon  _ going.”

“There could be a place for you too,” Luke said, “if you wanted it.”

Han hesitated. 

Chewie started yelling from inside the  _ Falcon _ .

“What is it?” Han yelled back, heading up the ramp into the inside of the ship. A minute later he was back outside the ship, holding a device about the size of Luke’s fist. 

“What is that?” Luke asked. A small knot of worry bloomed in his chest.

“A beacon,” Han said grimly. “One I didn’t install. Looks new, too.”

“Imperial?”

“Exactly. Which means that they know where this ship is.”

“Which means,” Luke realized, “that they know where  _ we _ are.”

His comm crackled before he could contact Commander Willard; it was one of his aides on the communicator. 

“Your Highness?”

“Go ahead,” Luke replied automatically. 

“Our analysts have determined a weakness in the Death Star.”

“That is a relief,” Luke said. “Because I think it’s about to show up any minute now.”

He heard a sudden commotion in the background. “What is it, lieutenant?”

“Something just came out of hyperspace, Your Highness.”

“I will be there shortly,” Luke said. He looked at Han, but couldn’t think of anything to say. Han nodded in reply, and Luke began to jog towards the command building. 

* * *

“They’re hailing us,” said General Dodonna as Luke arrived. “All local frequencies.” Dodonna nodded at one of his aides, who opened the channel.

A deep voice, punctuated by mechanical breathing, filled the room. 

“Traitors of the Rebel Alliance,” said Darth Vader. “You will turn over the Alderaanian Prince to our custody, or your planet will be destroyed.”


	10. Death Star

Leia barely had time to object before she found herself in the middle of the briefing room. 

“I’m not part of this!” she whispered furiously to Wedge as they were hurried into a pair of seats. 

“Shh!” was all Wedge replied. The general was explaining the plan. Leia was at least curious enough to try and learn what it was. Not that she planned to participate. The second this briefing was over, she was running to the  _ Falcon _ . 

“Based on the plans that Prince Luke and his allies have provided,” General Dodonna began, “our analysts were able to determine a weakness in the station. Now, as some of you may have already assumed, the station’s weapons are vulnerable to single-pilot fighters; this is correct. It will also allow us to get close enough to our target: a secondary thermal exhaust port that leads straight to main reactor. If we arm our ships with proton torpedoes, we should be able to kick start a chain reaction that will destroy the station, or at least damage significant enough parts of it that we can take out the rest of it with our larger cruisers.”

“Not that we have many of those yet,” a pilot behind her muttered. 

“How big is the port?” said another pilot, wearing an insignia marking her as a squadron leader. 

“Only two meters in diameter,” the general replied. There was a low whistle around the room (at least from the species that  _ could _ whistle). 

“Is that small?” she whispered to Wedge.

“Even with a computer,” Wedge replied, “that’s practically impossible.”

“Seriously? I used to shoot down womp rats in my T-16 and they weren’t much bigger than two meters.” Leia realized that the room had gone quiet and everyone was looking at her.  

“So you think you can do it?” another pilot asked. 

“Well, I didn’t say that exactly--” Leia began to backpedal.

“Who are you, in fact?” the squadron leader asked. 

“She’s combat certified,” Wedge chimed in. Leia gave him a sharp elbow to the ribs. 

“I’m not--” Leia began again. Then she looked around the room. There were dozens of pilots. Some of them were even younger than her. 

She had a sudden, dizzying moment of vertigo. It was just like missions with Twin Suns. She could almost hear herself talking to them. 

_ “I want you all to know… the work we do here? It matters.” _

Telling Biggs that first time, outside Ben’s house. 

_ “Biggs, that’s why it matters. Because it’s completely absurd. Because we’re just kids. Because they can flatten us into the dirt.” _

It was just like it was then. 

_ “And because we can do something about it.” _

You could do anything if you’re calm enough. 

_ “So why don’t we?” _

She turned to the pilot. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do it.”

* * *

“Okay,” Luke said calmly, “but what if I  _ did _ turn myself in?”

“That is absolutely not an option,” Commander Willard repeated. 

“If there is a chance we could evacuate the planet and get to safety, one life is a reasonable price to pay,” Luke insisted. “Especially since it’s  _ my _ life we’re talking about here.”

“Your importance to the Rebellion--”

“What importance? Do you see me hopping into an X-wing right now? The only thing I can do right now is sit and wait to see if the Death Star is going to blow us all up.”

“Your importance,” the commander repeated, with a slight edge to his voice, “is not because of what you can blow up, but because of your unique position. Like it or not, Your Highness, but you are a figurehead of the Rebellion. Your imprisonment garnered sympathy for us, yes, but we need you here with us.”

“For what? As decoration?”

“For example, we have been attempting to negotiate with the Mon Calamari to get them to join our cause for months now. We need their support, and we especially need their midsize cruisers if we are to have any hope of facing the Empire in a fight. They won’t talk to us. But they  _ will _ talk to you, and that’s of more value than an empty Imperial promise.”

“I am not naive; I know that they will blow up the planet anyway. I just want to delay long enough to get more personnel off-planet.”

“Your distraction will not buy us as much time as you think it will,” the commander countered. “You have better uses.”

“Not right now, I don’t,” Luke shot back. 

“Then get out of my sight and let me organize this evacuation,” Willard said darkly. 

Luke stormed off and found himself back at the  _ Falcon _ . 

Neither Han nor Chewbacca were anywhere to be seen. Luke assumed they must have gone to get something to eat before the mess closed down to evacuate. 

He ran for the cockpit and turned on the engines. 

Luke might not have been combat certified, but he did know how to fly. 

* * *

“Artoo Detoo, where are you going?” Threepio said as the astromech droid was being loaded into Leia’s X-wing. “Does Master Luke know that you’re doing this?”

Artoo made a blatting noise at Threepio and rotated his dome in a facsimile of a head shake. 

Leia shrugged at Threepio. “As long as Artoo doesn’t object, it doesn’t matter to me. Besides, I think you’re both still technically my droids?”

“ _ Technically _ , we are stolen goods that were illegally resold,” Threepio pointed out. “But if Artoo does not object, there is not much that I can do. He is really quite an upsetting droid sometimes.”

Leia climbed up into the X-wing cockpit. The strangest part of the whole thing was the uniform. She felt conspicuous; she missed her vocoder voice. 

She had no plans of dying today, she thought to herself as her squadron rose through the atmosphere, but if she did, at least the last thing she got to do was fly over the jungle. 

Her squadron’s mission was to make the first trench run towards the exhaust port. Each run had to be done individually, while the remainder of the squadron provided cover. The trench would allow the targeting computer time to calculate the precise coordinates for the proton torpedoes. 

She must have sounded far more confident than she was, because they were allowing her to take the first run. 

TIE fighters scrambled almost the second they left the atmosphere. Even approaching the Death Star was like navigating a maze of flies that darted from place to place almost faster than the eye could follow. It took every bit of effort she had to keep herself in one piece, even while using the Force. 

By the time she reached the trench, she was already exhausted. It almost felt like she had walked the whole way on foot. 

The Death Star trench was like a nightmare version of Beggar’s Canyon. Flat grey walls that seemed to go on forever both ahead and behind. If there was an eternal punishment, Leia thought to herself, it would be to have to continue down this corridor forever without ceasing. 

And that was before the TIE fighters started shooting at her. 

The chatter on the comms grew almost overwhelming; occasionally she heard the screams of a fighter pilot’s last words, and a spark of pain rippling through the Force as they died. She had to force herself to tune it out. 

Just breathe, she told herself. 

Follow the path, watch the computer, and wait for the right moment, she repeated over and over. 

The two lines on her display grew closer and closer together. Almost there. 

Just breathe. 

Then a voice penetrated her focus: “--we have a YT-1300 light freighter exiting orbit! Whose ship  _ is _ that?”

The  _ Falcon.  _ Han. 

Han was leaving?

Artoo sounded an alarm. Leia pulled her trigger to fire the torpedoes. 

They splashed against the rim of the exhaust port and exploded. 

“Red Five, did it hit?” the squadron leader asked over the comms.

“Negative,” Leia said, her heart sinking. “Negative, they didn’t go in.”

“This is Red Leader, we’re going in for our run. Cover me, Red Two.”

“Copy that,” said Wedge. 

She  _ missed _ . 

And Han was leaving without her. 

That  _ bastard. _

As she pulled up out of the trench, she looked around. “Artoo, can you scan for the  _ Falcon _ ?”

Artoo beeped in acknowledgement. Within fifteen seconds he sent the coordinates to the display for Leia to examine. 

Leia frowned. “Wait,  _ that’s _ their heading?”

Artoo whistled in the affirmative. 

“Why the hell would they be heading  _ towards _ the Death Star?”

* * *

Whoever set up the controls on the  _ Falcon _ must have been either blind, drunk, or from a species with more than two arms.

Luke gave a growl of frustration and slammed a hand on the console. This was incomprehensible.

He could at least steer, however, and was able to move the ship closer to the Death Star. He could say this much about the  _ Falcon _ : she could maneuver better than any ship he had ever flown. 

If this doesn’t get their attention, he thought, nothing will. The same ship from a few days before, coming back to the Death Star? A single lifeform on a light freighter was uncommon. They must know it was him who was flying it. 

“Han, I swear on Ben’s fucking ghost that I will tear you apart!” came a shout over the comms.

Leia. 

She must have thought it was Han, escaping the battle. 

He wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t explain his plan. Not yet. Not until he got a little closer. 

Not until it was too late to stop him. 

“I think it’s a little late to defect now, kid,” came a voice from behind him. 

Luke turned. It was Han. 

“See, all I wanted was to fix the sublight engine conduits and the next thing I know I’m in the middle of a dogfight and find someone in the pilot’s chair who, I would like to point out,  _ is not Chewie _ , also known as the  _ only other person who can fly this thing _ .”

“It’s… kind of a long story,” Luke said, turning back to the controls. TIE fighters were drawing close. 

“It is never  _ ever  _ busy enough that you can get away with explaining what you are doing  _ stealing my ship _ ,” Han said, leveling a blaster in Luke’s direction. “What are you doing here?”

“You must have heard over the comms,” Luke said, shifting into the co-pilot’s chair. Han made a gesture with his blaster to keep moving; Luke stood and backed away. “They wanted me to give myself up, so I’m doing just that.”

“Really? Your previous Imperial vacation wasn’t enough for you?”

“I’m not planning on  _ actually _ turning myself in,” Luke said, arms raised in surrender. “Just providing enough of a distraction so that the Rebel forces can evacuate the base before the Death Star blows it up.”

Han gave him a sad look. 

“And yes, I know I stole your ship but I had no other choice in the matter!”

Han said quietly, “You don’t think Leia’s going to be able to do it.”

“I didn’t say that,” Luke said hastily. “In fact, this could give her more time.”

“The fact is,” Han said, with increasing volume and anger, “is that you honestly thought that your own allies couldn’t find their own asses with a map and an astromech, so you decided that the best thing to do would be to do something that I assume  _ plenty _ of people told you was a dumb idea and put yourself in danger because you didn’t think that anyone else could do it right. You have that little regard for your own people.”

Luke glared at him. A voice in the back of his mind pointed out that he could just  _ make _ Han put the blaster down. He could do whatever he wanted. He was  _ right _ . 

Wasn’t he?

Of course he was. 

* * *

Han hadn’t answered her hail, so she was just going to have to get in his face until he reacted.

His metaphorical face. 

She reached out with the Force and sensed him on board. 

To her surprise, Luke was there too.

Something very bad was happening. Something with Luke. 

“Red Five, where are you going?”

“I’m going to stop that freighter,” Leia said. “Something’s happened.”

“Red Five, return to your formation!”

Leia let out a frustrated sigh. They could manage without her for a few minutes.

_ Luke!  _ She yelled through the Force. Ben had never showed her how mind-to-mind communication worked, so she hoped that mental force could make up for what she lacked in finesse. 

_ You’re in my head.  _

_ Luke, what’s going on? _

_ I’m doing this for everyone’s own good. _

He was turning himself in. But why was Han there?

_ I didn’t mean for Han to be here _ , he replied. Her thoughts must have been easy to access. 

_ Turn around, _ she ordered. 

_ You’re disobeying orders too, aren’t you. _ It wasn’t a question. 

Leia didn’t answer. 

_ Get out of my head! _ he yelled. And with a shove, she was back in her own mind, the connection severed.

Fine. If she couldn’t stop Luke by talking to him, then she would do the next best thing: blow up the Death Star before he got there. 

* * *

Luke snapped back into his own thoughts. He felt uneasy after talking with Leia, less sure of himself.

“Look,” said Han, “let me at the controls. I can fly circles around these Imperials, trust me.”

Luke nodded silently, and Han hopped into the pilot’s chair. 

“I sure hope the tractor beam is still disabled,” Han said, “otherwise this is going to be a pretty short distraction.”

Luke stood in the doorway of the cockpit, arms wrapped around himself. 

“Come on, you can sit in Chewie’s chair as long as you don’t touch anything.”

Luke slowly sat down in the co-pilot seat. 

The  _ Falcon _ flew in ungainly loops around the incoming TIE fighters. Being a racer at heart, it made Luke twitch uncomfortably, though he saw the merit of the strategy: it made the ship’s movements hard to anticipate, therefore making them harder to hit. Han was also skilled at using all three dimensions while maneuvering in space. It was almost nausea-inducing to watch the action through the cockpit windows as up became down, which became sideways, which became behind them. As soon as a TIE fighter thought it was safe, Han would come up from below and hit them with the forward guns. 

“Well,” Luke said faintly, “I guess we don’t look like we’re surrendering anymore.”

“Keep them guessing,” Han said with a shrug. 

The nauseous feeling in his stomach began to grow. This was atypical: usually Luke had a fairly strong stomach. He had only felt this way when…

...when Vader was near. 

* * *

“Red Five, cover Red Six; he’s going in for a run. Keep the TIEs off of him.”

Leia skimmed over the trench as her squadmate started his own procession through the narrow trench leading to the exhaust port. 

There were fewer voices over the channel now.

In fact, she hadn’t heard Wedge’s in awhile. 

“Where’s Red Two?” she asked. 

“Cut the chatter, Red Five,” Red Leader said. 

“Where is he?” she insisted. 

“He took a hit. Disabled his weapons and half of his thrusters, so he headed back to base.”

Leia exhaled in relief. Wedge was all right. 

“Red Leader! We have three incoming!” Red Eight shouted over comms. “They’re different models than the usual TIEs, I can’t--” and her report was cut off by an explosion. 

The squadron was now perilously small. Gold Squadron was currently keeping most of the TIE fighters at bay, but they wouldn’t be able to hold out for long, and then the main force of the fleet would be on Red Squadron’s necks. 

They had time for one more run. Maybe two. 

Leia intercepted the first of the new TIE fighters that had come up behind her. They were a little angled in wing shape, slightly sleeker, more maneuverable from side to side. Leia flew up, away from the Death Star’s surface, and then descended like a krayt dragon on its prey, flying straight downward at the trench from above. 

The first TIE fighter fractured, one of its wings spinning off…

...and directly into the S-foil of Red Six’s fighter. The X-wing scraped against the wall, and Leia screamed at her squadmate to pull up. His ascent, however, was cut short by a wave of fire from the next TIE fighter. Red Six exploded, his ship’s debris mixing with that of the first fighter. 

“Stand by,” Red Leader said grimly, “I’m going in.”

_ Kenobi’s student… he was no pilot, though. _

Vader’s voice. 

He was inside her head again. 

* * *

“Vader’s here,” Luke said breathlessly. Han looked over at him briefly.

“On the Death Star?”

“No,” Luke said, shaking his head. Somehow he just  _ knew.  _ “He’s in one of those fighters.”

Han nodded. “Think you could point out which one?”

“Maybe.”

“Then let’s go ruin his day.”

* * *

The second TIE fighter also took out Red Leader.

Aside from Gold Squadron, Leia was the only X-wing left. 

_ You cannot win, young apprentice. _

She really wished she had Luke’s mental barriers right about now. 

_ Who is the Prince really?  _

_ I’m not telling you a damn thing, _ she thought, jaw clenched. She guided her ship down into the trench. This was the last chance. 

_ This foolish attack will not work. You will be destroyed.  _

The two TIE fighters behind her began to fire. 

_ It is useless to resist, _ Vader continued, and she suddenly realized why he was so easily in her head. 

He was in one of the TIE fighters pursuing her. 

Miles of corridor flashed around her. She increased her speed. 

Artoo flashed a notice on her display: at her current speed, she might not be able to pull up her ship in time after taking her shot. 

“Don’t worry, Artoo,” she said. “It’ll be just like Beggar’s Canyon back home.”

Her targeting computer once again showed the two lines moving closer and closer together. The TIE fighters continued firing. 

Just breathe. Concentrate.

Of course, this would be a lot easier if there wasn’t a freaking monster yelling at her inside her head. 

_ Who are you? _

_ Go away, _ she growled inside her mind. 

Forget him. Just concentrate. Breathe. 

_ The Force is strong with you. _

Just a few more seconds…

_ Who are you? _

She could feel her ship squarely in both TIE fighters’ sights. 

_ Tell me who you are! _

_ I’m Leia fucking Skywalker, _ she replied,  _ and you’re about to watch me destroy this station. _

There was an explosion behind her. She gasped, waiting for the inevitable heat and horror to come…

“You’ve got this, princess.”

It was Han. 

The explosions behind her were from one of the TIE fighters exploding, sending the other one spinning off into space. 

It was time. She pulled the trigger. 

And this time she knew she had won.


	11. Smile

“I need you to understand this: the fact that you saved us all is the only reason why I haven’t thrown all three of you in the brig until we reach Echo Base,” Commander Willard said. 

“Excuse me?” Leia said.

“Han had nothing to do with this,” Luke added quickly. 

Willard’s face was stony, but his anger was obvious. “Your flagrant disregard for orders not only put the mission in danger, but it also led to the decimation of our forces. No, let me rephrase that: our fighter squadrons were more than decimated. Only half of Gold Squadron returned, and Skywalker and Antilles were the sole survivors of Red Squadron. And much of the loss of Red Squadron, in particular, can be placed squarely on your shoulders.” He looked at Leia. “You should have been there, protecting your squadmates, and you weren’t.”

Leia bit her lower lip. She chafed at the dressing down she was receiving, but knew that Willard was right. She would have been every bit as hard on Biggs or Tank if a mission had gone this sideways. Hell, after the job that nearly killed Fixer, she had to keep herself from strangling Tank with either her bare hands or the Force itself. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, just barely managing to look Willard in the face. 

“And you,” Willard said, looking at Luke. “You disobeyed my direct orders. Your ‘distraction’ did nothing more than distract your own allies and lead to their deaths.”

“I had to do  _ something _ ,” Luke protested. “My presence was what put everyone in danger.”

“That’s bantha poodoo, Luke,” Leia cut in. “Sure, Vader wanted to capture you, but they were here because this was a  _ Rebel base _ . You know, the one they’ve been  _ looking for _ .”

“The one that I helped lead them to!” Luke countered. 

“Oh, get over yourself,” Leia snapped at him. “Pretend for one second that you’re not some almighty Prince. The galaxy doesn’t revolve around you. We all screwed up by not finding that beacon.” She looked at Han. “No offense.”

Han winced a little, but said nothing. 

“I couldn’t just  _ sit there _ ,” Luke said, growing more agitated. “I just couldn’t.”

“Sometimes that’s the hardest part of being a leader,” Willard interjected. “Letting other people do their jobs and  _ trusting  _ them to do it. Without trust, the Rebellion will fracture, and that trust starts at the top. And like it or not, but you’re both leaders now.” He sighed. “So start acting like it.”

Luke was still fighting to get himself under control. This wasn’t fair, he thought to himself. He couldn’t have just sat there and done nothing. All he had done on the Death Star was sit and do nothing and wait to see if he woke up the next day. It had been the most terrified he had ever been. 

He watched his entire planet die and couldn’t do a thing. 

He watched his birth father be cut down by Vader and couldn’t do anything but stand there. 

All he wanted was to do something that mattered. That was why he started the Foundation. That was why he had joined the Rebellion.

And that was why he had screwed it all up.

He hung his head in shame. “I apologize.”

“So what do we do now?” Leia asked the commander after a moment’s silence. 

“You,” he said to her, “are going to incorporate yourself into your squadron even if I have to forcibly hammer you in there myself. You will follow orders, you will support your squadmates, and you will take part in the evacuation to Echo Base just like any other soldier here.” 

“I have to go back to Tatooine,” Leia protested. “I have work to do there!”

“Then you’re going to have to make your final decision now,” Willard said. “And if you go, know that we’ll be monitoring you and making sure that you never endanger us in the future. And know that, since we have numerous reports that multiple TIE fighters escaped with battle footage, there’s a very good chance that the Imperials are going to figure out that you’re the one that destroyed their precious superweapon.”

That bastard, Leia thought. But he was right. She had to see this through.

For now, at least.

“And you,” he said to Luke, “are going to be traveling at the most breakneck speed we can manage in order to drum up support. You’re going to negotiate with the Bothans, you’re going to schmooze with the Chandrilans, and you’re going to get on your damn knees and beg the Mon Calamari for help if it comes to that. You’re going to do all that and more, in secret, and you will never receive even an ounce of glory from it, do you understand me?”

Luke nodded. 

“But the next thing you’re going to do,” continued Willard, “both of you, is act like the heroes of the Rebellion that you have now become. Tonight, before the evacuation begins, we will have a ceremony to honor the dead and unite the living. You will both be central figures in this ceremony, and so help me if I see anything on your faces other than utter  _ radiance _ I’m going to launch both of you into the nearest sun.”

“What about me?” Han asked.

Willard gave a tired sigh. “I have no idea what to do with you, honestly. Your freighter has likely been a known target ever since it was on the Death Star.”

“I’ve avoided Imperials before,” Han said. “But, hey, I could probably stick around for awhile. Maybe I’ll actually get paid one of these days.” He gave Luke a pointed look. 

“Payment may be hard to arrange in the short-term,” Luke admitted. “But would you accept a medal or something in the meantime?” He looked hopefully at Willard.

Han shrugged. “As long as Chewie gets one too.”

* * *

The remaining troops stood in formations in the hall that must have been the central gathering point of the temples that made up the soon-to-be-abandoned Rebel base. The Empire would regroup and return soon, but now was a moment of celebration and remembrance.

Leia shifted uncomfortably in her new flight jacket. Luke was probably even more uncomfortable that her, dressed in as much improvised Alderaanian finery as they could muster up. All of his clothes were a brilliant white, which would have made him look cold and remote if not for the warm smile he had on his face. 

She knew it was forced, however, even if no one else did. 

The immensity of the Great Hall only underscored how few Rebel troops were left after the battle. The fighter squadrons in particular were a noticeably small contingent; Gold Squadron had been folded into the remains of Red Squadron, with Wedge as its new leader. 

Her new medal “for bravery and valor beyond the call of duty” hung heavy on her neck. She imagined that it must feel equally heavy for many others in the room. 

Chewbacca was obviously thrilled with his medal; it was hard for a Wookiee to keep their emotions hidden. Han accepted his medal with a veneer of solemnity, though he couldn’t resist throwing Leia a wink as he returned to his spot in the crowd. Leia fought back the blush creeping up her face. 

Her smile at that moment, however, was genuine. She looked over at Luke and caught him with a similarly truthful smile on his face. 

They had lost so much. So many had died in such a short time. The pilots. Ben. Tank. And the billions on Alderaan who she would never meet. 

But for now, at least, there was a moment of hope.


	12. Seeing the Light

Her name was Leia Skywalker. A Tatooine girl. And strong in the Force. 

Vader knew that this was no coincidence. 

At first he had raged. The Emperor had lied to him. He had said that the child had died too. Vader had believed him. 

It burned within him, this knowledge. 

But within that inferno came ironclad certainty. He would find the girl and bring her to the Emperor. 

But first, the boy. 

His armor still bore the scorch marks of the Force lightning that had engulfed the bridge of the Death Star. 

The boy, without a day of training, had tapped into his hatred and rage and summoned up a power that Vader had only ever seen the Emperor display. 

The boy was a Dark Side prodigy. Vader needed to know more about where he came from. 

He would bring them both to the Emperor. And together, they would kill him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it! Book 3, a retelling of The Empire Strikes Back, begins next week. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who read, left kudos, and/or commented. 
> 
> <3 Cat


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